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'    ^N 


Lookiii,^  Forward 


BY 


RICHARD    MICHAELIS, 

Editor  Chicago  "Freie  Presse." 


AN    ANSWER   TO 


LOOKING    BACKWARD 


EDWARD    BELLAMY. 


Copyrighted  iSgo,  by  Richard  Michaelis. 


5E2n 16 


PREFACE. 

Every  seeker  after  truth  and  reform  is  entitled  to 
recognition,  even  if  his  ways  and  methods  are  not 
ours.  Mr.  Edward  Bellamy's  book:  "'Looking  Back- 
ward", is  an  effort  to  improve  the  lot  of  mankind 
and  therefore  commendable,  but  his  reform  proposi- 
tion, stripped  of  its  fine  coloring,  is  nothing  but 
communism,  a  state  of  society,  which  has  proved  a 
failure  whenever  established  without  a  religious  basis 
and  which  without  such  basis  is  en  vogue  today  only 
among  some  barbarous  and  cannibal  tribes. 

Chicago  has  for  the  last  fourteen  years  been  the 
centre  of  the  communistic  and  anarchistic  agitation 
in  the  United  States,  and  in  defending  the  fundamen- 
tal principles  of  American  institutions  against  these 
theories,  that  were  imported  from  the  overcrowded 
industrial  centres  of  Europe,  I  became  cpiite  familiar 
with  them  as  well  as  with  the  notions  and  peculiari- 
ties of  social  reformers,  who  imagine  themselves  in 
possession  of  an  infallible  receii)t  to  perfect  not  only 
all  human  institutions  but  also  human  nature. 


iv  PREFACE. 

Of  course  Mr,  Bellamy  holds  more  moderate  views 
than  those  Spies  and  Parsons  proclaimed,  but  he 
has  this  much  in  common  with  the  Anarchists  and 
Communists  of  Chicago:  he  has  become  incapable 
of  passing  a  fair  judgement  upon  our  present  institu- 
tions, conditions  and  men  ;  he  overlooks  all  difhcul- 
ties  in  the  introduction  of  his  proposed  changes,  he 
really  believes  his  socialistic  air-castles  must  spring 
into  existence  very  soon  and  without  obstruction, 
and  he  populates  his  fairy  palaces  with  angelic  human 
beings,  who  would  never  by  any  possibility  do  any- 
thing wrong.  The  surmise,  that  men  and  women  in 
a  communistic  state,  would  put  off  ;dl  selfishness, 
envy,  hate,  jealousy,  wrangling  and  desire  to  rule  is 
just  as  reasonable  as  the  supposition,  that  a  man  can 
sleep  one  hundred  and  thirteen  years  and  rise  there- 
after as  young  and  fresh  as  he  went  to  bed. 

What  queer  methods  reformers  sometimes  advo- 
cate! John  Most  would  in  the  name  of  equal  rights 
to  all,  first  kill  all  men  who  are  not  in  absolute  sym 
pathy  with  his  opinions,  then  abolish  all  laws  and  all 
officers,  and  then  let  nature  take  its  course. — Mr. 
Bellamy  on  the  other  hand  would,  also  in  the  name 
of  equal  rights,  deprive  all  the  clever  and  industrious 
workers  of  a  large  or  the  largest  part  of  the  products 
of  their  labor  for  the  benefit  of  their  awkward,  stupid 


PREFACE.  V 

or  lazy  comrades !  And  this  would  be  what  Mr. 
Bellamy  is  pleased  to  style  justice  and  equality! 

And  for  the  purpose  of  reaching  this  state  of  mock- 
equality,  Mr.  Bellamy  would  as  a  matter  of  course 
have  to  sacrifice  competition,  the  gigantic  power 
that  elevated  us  all  and  Mr.  Bellamy  with  us  to  the 
present  state  of  evolution!  It  is  true  that  competiti(m 
has  been  and  is  now  abused,  but  every  institution  is 
subject  to  abuse  and  the  misuse  of  a  thing  does  not 
demonstrate  that  the  thing  in  itself  is  wrong.  Nobody 
can  deny  that  competition  during  the  centuries  of 
Christian  civilization  has  developed  the  brains  and 
muscles  of  the  human  race  and  that  the  continuous 
best  efforts  of  humanity,  stimulated  by  competition 
during  these  many  centuries,  have  lifted  our  race  to 
a  standard  where  the  mode  of  living  of  common 
laborers  is  more  comfortable  and  desirable  than 
the  everyday  existence  of  the  Kings  of  which  Homer 
sings. 

Every  generation  has  to  battle  with  certain  prob- 
lems, and  it  is  the  lot  of  ours  to  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties between  capital  and  labor,  that  have  been 
increased  by  the  change  in  the  methods  of  production 
since  the  discovery  of  steam  power. 

We  have  to  find  ways  and  means  not  to  avoid 
productive    ivork  ( — spoken  of   by   Mr.   Bellamy  as 


vi  PREFACE. 

an  e7>t7 — ),  but  to  cure  the  brain  cancer  of  our  days: 
the  permanent  uncertainty  of  subsistance  and  the 
fear  of  poverty.  And  we  accomplish  this  by  co- 
operation and  by  mutual  insurance  companies,  with- 
out retrograding  to  communism,  that  most  barbarous 
state  of  society. 

The  imperfect  nature  of  man  characterizes,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  all  human  institutions  and  it  is  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world,  by  "/o(?ki7?g  backward"",  to 
find  fault  with  living  men  as  well  as  with  the  present 
state  of  affairs  and  to  build  air  castles  inhabited  by 
angels  only. 

I  will  now  look  forward  I  By  demonstrating  what 
would  be  the  logical  conclusion  of  Mr.  Bellamy's 
story,  if  fairly  continued,  T  purpose  to  show  that  he 
first  tries  to  establish  absolute  equality  and  then, 
despairing  of  success,  advocates  an  inequality  in 
many  respects  more  oppressive  than  the  present  state 
of  things,  I  intend  to  demonstrate,  that  under  the 
regime,  proposed  by  Mr.  Bellamy,  favoritism  and 
corruption  would  be  very  potent  factors  in  public 
life.  I  expect  to  set  forth  that  personal  liberty  would 
fare  so  badly  in  Mr.  Bellamy's  United  States,  that 
the  proud  and  independent  American  people  would 
never  tolerate  such  a  system,  and  to  prove  beyond  a 
reasonable    doubt,  that    the  people  would  be  much 


PREFACE.  vii 

poorer  in  Mr.  Bellamy's  condition  of  affairs,  than  at 
the  present  time. 

I  do  not  deny  that  our  society  stands  in  need  of 
many  desirable  reforms;  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  fol- 
low blindly  Mr.  Bellamy,  John  Most,  or  anybody  else, 
who  pretends  that  he  is  ready  to  deliver  humanity  from 
all  evils  on  short  notice,  and  I  do  not  intend  to  jump 
head  over  heels  into  the  dark. 

If  Mr.  Bellamy  and  his  followers  are  quite  sure 
that  they  can  establish  the  millennium,  /^/  ///^m  try 
it,  like  the  communists  ot  the  Amana  Society  who 
have  started  a  community  in  the  state  of  Iowa  on  a 
religious  basis.  There  are  many  thousands  of  acres 
of  good  governmeni  lands  left,  where  Mr.  Bellamy 
and  his  friends  may  settle  and  show  the  world  what 
they  can  do!  But  they  should  not  ask  the  i)eople  of 
the  United  States  to  break  up  their  present  form  of 
government  and  state  of  society,  before  the)-  have 
given  their  theories  a  trial  and  proved  thai  their 
calculations  are  correct. 

Richard  Michaelis. 

Chicago,  April  1890. 


lOQUm  FORWAED. 


CHAPTER  I. 

For  the  purpose  of  introducing  myself  to  those 
readers  of  this  book,  who  are  not  familiar  with  the 
contents  of  "Looking  Backward",  edited  by  Mr. 
Edward  Bellamy,  I  will  recapitulate  the  remarkable 
events  of  my  life  up  to  the  end  of  that  extraordinary 
narrative. 

Born  in  Boston  on  the  26th  day  of  December 
1857,  I  was  baptized  Julian  West,  was  educated  in 
the  schools  and  colleges  of  my  city,  but,  being  in 
possession  of  a  handsome  fortune,  did  not  devote 
myself  to  any  particular  profession  or  trade.  I  be- 
came engaged  to  Miss  Edith  Bartlett,  a  young  lady 
of  great  beauty,  and  it  was  our  intention  to  marry 
as  soon  as  my  new  house  should  be  ready  for  occu- 
pation. The  completion  01  the  building  was  fre- 
quently delayed  by  strikes  of  masons  and  carpenters, 
and  I  occupied  still  the  old  fashioned  house,  where 
my  family  had  lived  for  three  generations. 

Suffering  from  insomnia,  I  had  prepared  in  the 
basement  and  under  the  foundations  of  the  old  build- 


lo  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

ing,  a  large  vault,  where  the  noises  of  a  great  city 
would  not  disturb  me.  This  vault  was  absolutely 
fire-proof,  and  fresh  air  was  assured  by  means  of  a 
small  pipe  running  up  to  the  roof  of  the  house. 

To  obtain  sleep  I  was  frequently  forced  to  avail 
myself  of  the  services  of  a  mesmerist,  and  it  happened 
that  on  the  30th  day  of  May  1887,  after  two  sleepless 
nights,  I  sent  my  colored  servant  Sawyer  to  a  Dr.  Pills- 
bury,  whom  I  was  in  the  habit  of  employing.  The 
doctor  was  about  to  leave  the  city  to  establish  him- 
self in  New  Orleans,  and  this  was  therefore  the  last 
time  he  would  be  able  to  treat  me,  I  instructed 
Sawyer  to  rouse  me  at  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning, 
and  under  the  manipulations  of  the  mesmerist  I  soon 
fell  into  a  deep  slumber. 

When  I  opened  my  eyes  again  I  found  that  I  had 
slept  113  years,  3  months,  and  11  days. 

I  discovered  that  the  old  house  had  been  destroyed 
by  fire  and  that  Sawyer  had  perished  in  the  flames. 
Dr.  Pillsbury  had  left  Boston,  the  existence  of  the 
vault  where  I  slept  was  unknown  to  my  friends,  the 
house  had  not  been  rebuilt  and  so  I  remained  in  a 
mesmerized  condition  for  over  a  hundred  years,  until 
a  Dr.  Leete,  the  occupant  of  a  house  which  was  being 
erected  on  a  part  of  the  old  lot,  commenced  to  build 
a  laboratory  and  unearthed  my  vault  in  the  year 
2000. 

I  learned  that  Edith  Bartlett,  after  mourning  my 
loss  fourteen  years,  had  married,  that  Dr.  Leete's 
wife  was  Edith  Bartlett's  granddaughter,  and  that  his 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  ii 

daughter  Edith  was  therefore  the  great-granddaughcr 
of  the  young  lady  who  had  been  my  promised  bride 
113  years  before. 

The  vigor  of  my  manhood  of  thirty  years  overcame 
the  shock  of  these  discoveries.  I  soon  felt  myself 
at  home  in  Dr.  Leete's  house,  the  more  so,  because 
young  Edith  soon  occupied  the  place  in  my  heart 
once  filled  by  Edith  Bartlett,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
Edith  Leete,  a  somewhat  romantic,  compassionate 
girl,  consented  with  grace  to  become  the  successor  of 
her  great-grandmother;   to  be  my  bride. 

But  the  turn  of  my  own  fate  is  even  less  remark- 
able, than  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
social  order  of  things.  Dr.  Leete  explained  to  me 
the  new  organization  of  society. 

Individual  enterprises  have  ended.  The  nation 
creates  everything  that  individuals  and  corporations 
were  producing  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Every  able  bodied  man,  every  healthy  woman 
belongs  to  the  ^'industrial  army".  They  enter  the 
force  at  the  age  of  21  and  are  released  at  45.  Only 
in  rare  cases  of  necessity  are  men  over  45  years  of 
age  summoned  to  work. 

Money  is  abolished,  but  all  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  receive  an  equal  share  of  the  results  of 
the  work  of  the  industrial  army  in  the  form  of  a 
credit  card,  a  piece  of  paste  board  on  which  dollars 
and  cents  are  marked.  There  is  one  store  in  each 
ward  where  people  can  select  such  goods  as  they 
may  desire.     The  value  of  the  goods,  one  purchases, 


12  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

is  pricked  out  of  his  credit  card  and  his  account  is 
charged  in  tlie  Government  books  with  the  amount 
of  goods  so  purchased. 

The  meals  are  furnished  by  large  cooking  houses. 
Washing  and  repairing  are  done  in  large  laundries. 
One  may  take  his  meals  home  or  eat  them  at  the 
cooking  house.  The  bill  of  fare  is  very  elaborate 
and  one  may  have  even  a  special  dining  room.  The 
amount  to  be  paid  for  the  meals  differs  of  course 
according  to  the  bill  of  fare  ordered  and  to  the  place 
where  the  meal  is  taken. 

Each  family  occupies  a  separate  house;  the  furni- 
ture being  the  property  of  the  tenant.  The  rent, 
which  depends  on  the  size  of  the  house,  is  also 
pricked  out  of  the  credit  card. 

All  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  obliged  to 
attend  school  until  they  have  reached  the  age  of  21. 
Then  they  become  members  of  the  industrial  army. 
During  the  first  three  years  of  their  services  they  are 
called  recruits  or  apprentices  and  have  to  do  the 
common  labor  under  the  absolute  command  of  the 
officers  or  overseers.  A  record  is  kept,  in  which  are 
entered  the  ability  and  behavior  of  each  recruit. 

After  the  first  three  years  of  service,  each  recruit 
may  select  a  profession  or  a  trade.  As  far  as  possi- 
ble the  volunteers  are  placed  in  the  trades  they 
prefer.  Recruits  with  the  best  records  are  given  the 
first  choice.  Some  of  them  have  to  take  a  second  or 
third  choice,  and  some  are  obliged  to  accept 
positions  assigned  to  them  by  their  superiors. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  13 

All  members  of  the  army  are,  according  to  their 
ability  and  behavior,  divided  into  three  grades,  and 
apprentices  with  a  first-class  record  may,  after  their 
three  years  service,  enter  at  once  the  first  grades  of 
the  different  trades  selected  by  them. 

The  general  of  the  guild  appoints  all  the  officers  of 
his  trade.  The  lieutenants  must  be  taken  from  the 
members  of  the  first  grades.  The  captains  are  chosen 
by  the  general  from  the  lieutenants,  the  colonels  from 
the  captains.  The  general  of  the  guild  himself  is 
elected  by  the  former  members  of  the  trade,  that  is, 
those  who  have  passed  the  age  of  forty-five.  The  ex- 
members  of  all  the  guilds  also  elect  the  chiefs  of  the 
ten  great  departments  or  groups  of  allied  trades.  The 
chiefs  are  taken  from  the  generals  of  the  guilds.  And 
the  former  guild  members  also  elect  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  who  is  taken  from  the  ranks  of 
the  retired  chiefs  of  the  ten  great  departments.  The 
President,  the  ten  chiefs  of  the  great  departments  and 
the  generals  of  all  the  guilds  live  in  Washington. 

The  members  of  the  industrial  army  have  not  the 
right  to  vote  for  any  of  the  officers  by  whom  they 
are  governed.  They  have  no  representation  during  their 
24  years  of  service  ;  but  if  they  have  a  complaint 
against  one  of  their  superiors,  they  may  bring  their 
case  before  a  judge  whose  decision  is  final. 

The  judges  are  appointed  by  the  President  from 
the  ranks  of  the  retired  members  of  the  guild  for  the 
term  of  five  years. 

Courts,  lawyers,  jails,  sheriffs,  tax-assessors,  collec- 


14  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

tors  and  many  other  officers  have  been  abolished. 
Criminals  are  treated  in  hospitals  as  persons  men- 
tally ill. 

The  National  Government  regulates  the  production. 
When  it  sees  that  certain  trades  attract  a  very  large 
number  of  volunteers,  while  other  trades  fall  short, 
the  administration  increases  the  working  time  of  the 
preferred  trades  and  shortens  the  working  hours  of 
those  needing  more  volunteers. 

The  women  have  their  own  officers,  generals, 
judges,  and  form  an  auxiliary  army  of  industry. 
They  receive  the  same  credit  cards  as  the  men. 
Since  the  cooking  and  washing  and  repairing  of 
household  goods  are  done  outside,  the  women  of  the 
twentieth  century  have  more  time  for  productive 
labor  than  had  the  women  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Recruits  who  have  passed  three  years  service, 
during  which  they  are  assignable  to  any  work  at  the 
discretion  of  their  superiors,  may  enter  schools  of 
technology,  medicine,  art,  etc.;  but  if  they  cannot 
keep  pace  with  the  classes,  they  must  withdraw. 
Physicians,  who  do  not  find  sufficient  employment, 
are  assigned  to  work  of  another  character. 

If  people  desire  the  publication  of  a  newspaper, 
they  must  club  together  and  give  up  enough  of  their 
credit  cards  to  compensate  the  nation  for  the  loss  of 
the  work  of  the  persons  editing  and  printing  the 
paper. 

If  one  desires  to  publish  a  book,  he  can  write  it  in 
his  hours  of  leisure  and  can  have  it  printed  by  giving 


LOOK  I  m   FORWARD.  15 

up  a  part  of  his  credit  card.  For  the  copies  sold  he 
receives  again  a  new  credit. 

Preachers  are  in  a  similar  way  employed  by  per- 
sons who  desire  to  hear  their  sermons 

Cripples  or  other  people   unable   to   do   full   work 

or  any  work  at  all,   receive  their  full   credit    cards, 

because  the  fact,  that  they  are  human  beings,  entitles 

them  to  their  full  share  of  all  good  things  produced 
on  earth. 

The  state  governments  within  the  United  States 
have  been  abolished  as  useless. 

All  xother  civilized  nations  have  organized  them- 
selves on  a  similar  basis  and  are  exchanging  goods 
with  each  other.  The  yearly  balances  are  settled 
with  national  staple  articles. 

The  new  order  of  things  enables  people  to  live 
without  cares,  and  one  of  the  consequences  is  the 
fact,  that  most  of  the  men  and  women  of  an  average 
constitution  live  from  eighty-five  to  ninety  years. — 

Such  was  the  description  of  the  new  order  of 
things  given  me  by  Dr.  Leete  in  a  number  of  conver- 
sations. The  doctor  is  very  enthusiastic  over  the 
organization  of  society  of  the  twentieth  century  and 
does  not  hesitate  to  call  it  the  millennium. 

The  fear  and  uncertainty  which  I  entertained  in 
regard  to  my  employment  were  set  at  rest  by  Dr. 
Leete,  who  said,  that  I  could,  if  I  wished,  have  the 
position  of  professor  of  the  history  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  the  Shawmut  College  of  Boston.  I  have 
accepted  the  offer  and  shall  enter  upon  my  duties 
next  Monday. 


CHAPTER    IL 

When  I  first  entered  the  large  hall  of  Shawmut 
College,  where  I  was  to  deliver  ray  lectures,  I  noticed 
near  the  door  of  the  room  a  gentleman  of  about  forty 
years  of  age.  He  was  too  old  to  be  one  of  the 
students  and  as  I  had  not  seen  him  when  Dr.  Leete 
introduced  me  to  the  professors  of  the  institution, 
I  was  somewhat  curious  to  know  in  what  capacity 
he  honored  my  debut. 

The  cordial  reception  I  had  met  at  the  hands  of 
the  professors,  the  fact  that  every  seat  of  the  large 
hall  was  occupied,  acted  as  a  stimulus  and  when  Dr. 
White,  the  president  of  Shawmut  College  had  intro- 
duced me  with  a  few  complimentary  remarks  as  a 
living  witness  of  the  nineteenth  century,  I  began 
my  first  lecture  in  the  best  of  spirits. 

My  speech  contained  naturally  many  of  the  points 
that  Dr.  Leete  had  most  dwelt  upon,  when,  in  his 
conversations  with  me,  he  had  compared  the  organ- 
ization of  society  of  the  nineteenth  and  that  of  the 
twentieth  centuries. 

I  said  in  substance,  that  my  hearers  must  not 
expect  a  synopsis  of  the  civilization  of  the  two  cen- 
turies or  a  panegyric  of  the  present  state  of  affairs. 
I  would  point  out  but  a  few  conditions,  regulations 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  17 

and  institutions  that  could   serve  as  criterion  of  the 
spirit  of  their   times. 

As  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the  civilization  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  I  described  the  insane  com- 
petition, where  a  man  in  a  foul  fight  must  '-cheat, 
overreach,  supplant,  defraud,  buy  below  worth  and 
sell  above,  break  down  the  business  by  which  his 
neighbor  fed  his  young  ones,  tempt  men  to  buy  what 
they  ought  not  and  to  sell  what  they  should  not, 
grind  their  laborers,  sweat  their  debtors,  cozen  their 
creditors,"*)  in  order  to  be  able  to  support  those 
dependent  on  him.  I  showed  "that  there  had  been 
many  a  man  among  the  people  of  the  nineteenth 
century  who,  if  it  had  been  merely  a  question  of  his 
own  life  would  sooner  have  given  it  up  than  nour- 
ished it  by  bread  snatched  from  others."!)  I  pictured 
the  consequences  of  this  insane  and  annihilating 
competition  as  a  constant  wear  on  the  brains  and 
bodies  of  the  past  generation,  intensified  by  the  per- 
manent fear  of  poverty.  The  spectre  of  uncertainty 
walked  constantly  beside  the  man  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  sat  at  his  table  and  went  to  bed  with  him, 
even  whispering  in  his  ears:  ''Do  your  work  ever  so 
well,  rise  early  and  toil  till  late,  rob  cunningly  or 
serve    faithfully,    you    shall    never    know    security. 

*)  Such  parts  of  Mr.  Bellamy's  book  as  are  characteristic  of 
his  manner  of  dealing  with  the  present  and  with  the  future,  I 
give  with  marks  of  quotation,  adding  in  a  foot  note  the  page  of 
"  Lookuig  l>ackward,"  where  the  sentence  may  be  found.  The 
above  remarks  are  taken  from  page  277. 

f)    I'^^gL^  277. 


i8  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

Rich  you  may  be  now  and  still  come  to  poverty  at 
last.  Leave  ever  so  much  wealth  to  your  children, 
you  can  not  buy  the  assurance,  that  your  son  may 
not  be  the  servant  of  your  servant  or  that  your 
daughter  will  not  sell  herself  for  bread."**) 

And  while  one  hundred  and  thirteen  years  ago  all 
men  worked  like  slaves,  until  completely  exhausted, 
without  having  even  a  guaranty  that  they  would  not  die 
in  poverty  or  from  hunger,  the  men  of  the  twentieth 
century  were  walking  in  the  sunlight  of  freedom, 
security,  happiness  and  equality.  After  receiving  an 
excellent  education  in  standard  schools  and  then 
passing  through  an  apprenticeship  of  three  years,  the 
young  people  of  the  twentieth  century  select  their 
vocation.  Short  hours  of  work  permit  them,  even 
during  the  years  of  service  in  the  industrial  armyj 
to  spend  more  time  for  the  continuation  of  their 
studies  and  for  recreation  than  the  people  who  lived 
a  hundred  years  ago  had  ever  believed  to  be  consist- 
ent with  a  successful  management  of  industries, 
farming  or  public  affairs. 

Free  from  all  cares,  in  perfect  harmony  with  each 
other,  without  the  disturbing  influence  of  political 
parties,  enjoying  a  wealth  unprecedented  in  the  histo- 
ry of  nations,  we  might  verily  say:  '*The  long  and 
weary  winter  of  our  race  is  ended.  Its  summer  has 
begun.  Humanity  has  burst  the  chrysalis.  The 
heavens  are  before  it!"'f*f) 

**)   I'age  321. 
ft)   Page  292. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  19 

I  had  spoken  with  enthusiasm,  yes,  even  with  deep 
emotion  and  I  expected,  if  not  a  warm,  at  least  a  sym- 
pathetic reception  of  my  address.  But  only  a  faint 
and  very  cold  applause  followed  my  remarks.  I  had 
the  impression  that  not  one  fourth  of  the  young  men 
present  had  found  it  worth  their  while  to  show  their 
approval  of  my  lecture,  and  that  the  applause  of  even 
these  few  had  been  an  act  of  courtesy  rather  than  a 
spontaneous  outburst  of  feeling.  The  chilly  re- 
ception was  such  a  great  disappointment  to  me  that 
I  could  not  rally  courage  enough  to  leave  my  chair 
and  pass  through  the  students  as  they  were  leaving 
the  hall. 

I  busied  myself  at  the  little  desk  before  me  until 
everybody  had  gone  with  the  exception  of  the  gentle- 
man who  had  arrested  my  attention  when  I  entered 
the  room.  He  remained  at  the  door  evidently  waiting 
for  me. 

"You  belong  to  the  college  ?"  I  asked,  to  hide  my 
embarrassment. 

"Indeed  I  do",  he  answered  with  a  light  smile,  that 
challenged  another  question. 

"I  supjjose  I  have  the  ])leasure  of  meeting  one  of 
my  colleagues",  I  continued.     ''My  name  is  West". 

"Until  about  a  month  ago  I  was  Professor  Forest, 
your  ])redecessor  in  teaching  the  history  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  ;  to-day  I  am  one  of  the  janitors  and 
my  chief  has  been  good  enough  to  recommend  this 
room  to  my  care." 

I  had  during  the  last  few  days  seen  and   heard   so 


20  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

many  new  and  strange  things,   that  I  was  prepared  to 
be  surprised  at  nothing,  however  astounding. 

But  the  information,  that  to  a  professor  of  history 
was  assigned  the  duty  of  cleaning  the  rooms,  where 
he  had  once  lectured,  sounded  so  incredible  and 
opened  such  an  unpleasing  prospect  for  my  own 
career,  that  I  could  not  conceal  my  amazement. 

''And  what  has  caused  this  singular  change  of  posi- 
tion",  I  inquired. 

''In  comparing  the  lot  of  humanity  in  1900  and 
2000  I  came  to  conclusions  very  different  from  yours", 
responded  Mr.  Forest. 

''You  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  the  condition  of 
the  people  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  better  than 
that  of  the  present  generation  ?"  I  asked  with  some 
curiosity. 

"That  is  my  opinion",  said  Mr.  Forest. 

"The  only  way  I  can  understand  you  holding  such 
extraordinary  views,  is  that  you  are  personally  quite 
unacquainted  with  the  civilization  of  which  you  speak 
so  highly,"   I  declared. 

'T  have  a  as  matter  of  course,  drawn  my  information 
from  our  libraries,  and  I  am  forced  to  admit  that  you 
can  supjjort  your  argument  in  regard  to  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  last  century  by  pointing  to  your  personal 
knowledge.  But  I  am  afraid  that  you  are  not  so 
familiar  with  the  present  state  of  affairs,  at  the 
fountain  of  your  information  in  regard  to  the  twenti- 
eth century  is  only  one  man,  Dr.  Leete.  I  may 
therefore  claim  that  mv  information  of  tlie  ci\ilization 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  21 

of  your  days  is  better  than  yours  of  our  institutions, 
because  mine  is  based  on  the  testimony  of  more  wit- 
nesses than  one." 

"Then  you  must  of  course  disapprove  the  views 
developed  in  my  lecture  ?  " 

"Your  address  will  undoubtedly  be  published  in 
extenso  in  all  the  administration  organs,  that  is,  in 
nearly  every  newspaper  in  the  land',  said  Mr.  Forest, 
evading  a  direct  answer  to  my  question. 

"Administration  organs  you  say",  i  asked  with  sur- 
prise: "Has  the  administration  organs,  and  why  does 
it  need  them  ?  " 

"Of  course  the  administration  has  organs",  answered 
Forest.  "And  it  is  both  difficult  and  unpleasant  to 
edit  an  opposition  paper.  Therefore  we  have  only  a 
few  of  them." 

"But  Dr.  Leete  said:  "We  have  no  parties  or  poli- 
ticians and  as  for  demagoguery  and  corruption,  they 
are  words  having  only  a  historical  significance."*) 
And  yet  you  speak  of  opposition  and  of  administra- 
tion papers?"  I  said  this  very  likely  with  an  express- 
ion of  some  doubt  in  my  eyes. 

My  companion  broke  into  a  loud  laugh,  after  which 
he  asked:  "Excuse,  please,  my  merriment,  but  Dr. 
Leete  is  a  great  joker,  who  never  fails  to  "bringdown 
the  house  "  Well  !  Well  !  That  is  too  good.  I  wish 
I  could  have  seen  his  face  when  he  gave  you  that 
information." 

And  Mr.  Forest  laughed  again. 

*)   Page  60. 


22  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

"1  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  West",  he  continued,  when 
I  met  his  merriment  with  silence;  "but  you  would  not 
only  excuse  but  share  my  laughter,  if  you  were  famil- 
iar with  our  public  life,  if  you  knew  Dr.  Leete  ls  well 
as  I  do  and  then  learned  that  he  had  claimed,  we  were 
suffering  from  a  want  of  politicians.  But  I  wish  to  say 
right  here",  added  Mr.  Forest  in  a  more  composed 
tone,  "that  I  have  not  a  poor  opinion  of  Dr.  Leete. 
He  is  a  practical  joker  a  shrewd  politician,  but  other- 
wise as  good  a  man  as  our  time  can  produce." 

"Dr.  Leete  is  a  politician?"  I  asked  in  the  utmost 
astonishment. 

"Yes.  Dr.  Leete  is  the  most  influential  leader  of 
the  administration  party  in  Bostor).  I  owe  it  to  his 
kind  interference,  that  I  am  still  connected  with  the 
college." 

Noticing  that  I  did  not  know  how  to  construe  this 
statement,  Mr.  Forest  added: 

"When,  in  comparing  the  civilization  of  your  days 
with  ours,  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  communism 
had  proved  a  failure,  I  was  accused  of  misleading  and 
corrupting  the  students  and  the  usual  sentence  in  such 
cases:  "confinement  in  an  insane  asylum",  was  passed. 
Because,  it  is  claimed,  that  only  a  madman  could  find 
fault  with  the  best  organization  of  society  ever  intro- 
duced. Dr.  Leete,  however,  declared,  that  my  in 
sanity  was  so  harmless,  that  confinement  in  an  asylum 
seemed  unnecessary,  besides  being  too  expensive.  I 
could  still  earn  my  living  by  doing  light  work  about 
the   college  building;   and  my  case  would  serve  as  a 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  23 

warning  to  all  the  professorvS  and  students  to  be  care- 
ful.in  their  expressions  and  teachings.  So  I  retained 
the  liberty  in  which  we  glory  and  was  spared  doing 
street  cleaning  or  some  such  work,  which  is  generally 
awarded  to  "kickers"  against  the  administration." 

"The  students  seem  to  share  your  opinion,  at  least 
they  received  my  remarks  very  coldly,"  I  remarked, 
in  order  to  avoid  a  discussion  of  the  qualities  of  my 
host. 

Mr.  Forest's  keen  grey  eyes  rested  for  a  moment 
upon  my  face,  and  then  he  said  in  a  friendly  tone: 

"I  believe  you  were  convinced  of  what  you  said, 
Mr.  West;  but  did  it  not  occur  to  you,  that  you  treated 
your  time  and  your  contemporaries  very  severely  ? 
Did  competition  really  demand,  that  one  should  de- 
fraud his  neighbor,  grind  his  laborers,  sweat  his  debtors 
and  snatch  the  bread  from  others?  Were  the  majority 
of  the  men  of  your  time  swindlers  and  Shylocks?  Were 
the  laborers  all  slaves,  working  each  day  until  com 
pletely  exhausted?  I  remember  distinctly,  that  the 
wage-workers  of  your  time  struck  frequently  for  eight 
hours,  declining  to  work  nine  or  ten  hours  per  diem 
for  good  pay.  I  think  you  had  a  strong,  proud  and 
independent  class  of  laborers,  who  could  not  fairly  be 
regarded  as  slaves.  And  as  for  the  girls,  I  have  seen 
the  statements  and  complaints,  that  help  for  house- 
keeping was  very  scarce  in  your  days  and  was  paid 
from  I2.  to  $5.  per  week,  with  board,  so  that  there  was 
no  excuse  for  any  decent  girl  to  sell  herself  for  bread. — 
Of  course  your  state  of  civilization  was  very  fai  from 


24  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

being  faultless;  in  fact  there  is  no  such  thing  as  per- 
fection in  anything.  But  your  description  of  the 
civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  painted  in 
such  dark  colors,  that  our  students,  who  are  somewhat 
familiar  with  the  history  of  those  days,  could  not  very 
well  enthuse  over  your  lecture;  especially  as  many  of 
these  young  men  do  not  regard  our  present  institutions 
with  such  complete  admiration  as  you  do:  I  speak 
frankly,  Mr.  West,  and  I  hope  you  will  excuse  my 
frankness,  because  of  my  desire  to  serve  you  in  de- 
scribing men,  things  and  institutions  as  I  see  them." 

The  warm  tone  of  his  voice  and  the  sympathetic 
expression  of  his  eyes  caused  me  to  shake  hands  with 
Forest,  although  everything  he  had  said  went  directly 
against  my  friends,  my  views,  my  feelings  and  my 
interests.  I  left  him  in  an  uneasy  mood  and  walked 
home  revolving  in  my  mind  his  criticism  of  my 
lecture. 

I  met  Dr.  Leete  and  the  ladies,  and  Edith  inquired 
whether  my  debut  as  professor  had  satisfied  my  expec- 
tations. 

I  have  always  tried  to  be  frank  and  true  :  so  I 
gave  Dr.  Leete  and  his  family  a  synopsis  of  my 
speech,  mentioned  the  cool  reception  of  my  address 
and  my  disappointment.  I  spoke  of  Mr.  Forest's 
criticism,  leaving  out,  of  course,  his  observations  rela- 
tive to  Dr.  Leete,  and  confessed  that  his  censure  was 
not  wholly  undeserved  inasmuch  as  I  had  gone  too  far 
in  charging  upon  the  whole  people  the  bad  qualities 
which  reckless  competition  had  stamped  on  certain 
individuals. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  25 

Dr.  Leete  was  evidently  not  altogether  pleased  with 
my  remarks.  After  a  short  pause  he  said:  '-I  think 
the  reckless  competition  of  the  last  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  could  not  fail  to  demoralize  more  or 
less,  in  most  cases  more,  all  the  people,  who  were 
conducting  a  business  or  who  had  to  work  for  a  liv- 
ing. I  think  furthermore  that  your  lecture  was  an 
excellent  exposition  of  principles  and  that  you  have 
no  reason  to  yield  an  inch  of  your  position.  The 
cold  reception  you  met  with,  ought  not  to  worry  you. 
It  is  due  to  Forest,  who  has  planted  in  the  hearts  of 
our  students  his  idiosyncrasy,  his  blind  admiration  of 
competition  and  his  aversion  to  our  form  of  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  your  task  to  enlighten  the  young  men  in 
regard  to  the  comparative  merits  of  the  two  orders  of 
things.  —  Mr.  Forest  is  placing  a  heavy  tax  on  the 
patience  of  his  fellow  citizens  by  his  persistent  efforts 
to  mislead  the  students.  —  Did  he  mention  the  fact 
that  he  was  your  predecessor  ?" 

"He  did,  when  I  asked  hmi  if  he  were  a  member  of 
the  college  staff  of  teachers.  He  said  that  he  was 
discharged  for  his  heresy  and  that  he  owed  his  com- 
paratively lenient  treatment  to  you." 

"It  is  not  Forest's  habit  to  conceal  his  opinicms 
and  he  may  have  given  you  a  nice  idea  of  Dr.  Leete", 
my  host  said  with  a  smile. 

I  thought  best  under  the  circumstances  to  repeat 
Forest's  remarks  in  regard  to  Dr.  Leete,  which  remarks 
were  very  good  natured  and  rather  complimentary  to 
my  host.      I    may    add    that  1  desired   very  much   to 


26  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

know  what  Dr.  Leete  would  say  in  answer  to  the 
charge  of  being  a  politician  and  a  leader  of  the  ad- 
ministration party. 

So  I  said:  "Mr.  Forest  laughed  heartily  when  I 
repeated  your  remarks  that  you  have  no  party  nor 
politicians.  He  called  you  a  great  practical  joker,  a 
shrewd  politician,  the  leader  of  the  administration 
party  in  Boston  and   a  good  man." 

Dr.  Leete  smiled  somewhat  grimly  as  he  replied: 
"That  is  a  character  I  ought  to  be  grateful  for,  con- 
sidering that  it  comes  from  a  faultfinder  like  Forest. 
Concerning  his  references  to  me  as  a  politician  I  will 
say  that  I  never  held  an  office,  but  that  the  administra- 
tion has  occasionally  consulted  me  and  other  citizens 
on  important  questions.  Political  parties  we  have 
not.  There  are  of  course  a  few  incurable  faultfinders 
like  Mr.  Forest  and  a  few  radical  growlers,  but  we 
pay  but  little  attention  to  them  so  long  as  they  do 
not  disturb  the  public  peace.  If  they  do,  we  send 
them  to  a  hospital  where  they  receive  proper  treat- 
ment." 

Althoug-.  these  words  were  spoken  in  the  tone  of 
light  conversation,  they  impressed  me  deeply.  "If  they 
do,  we  send  them  to  a  hospital,  where  they  receive 
proper  treatment."  Did  not  this  confirm  Forest's 
statement,  that  the  usual  sentence  against  the  oppo- 
nents of  communism  was  confinement  in  an  insane 
asylum?" 

My  unpleasant  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  Edith's 
sweet  voice   remarking:     "I  think    Mr.    Forest  is    an 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  27 

honest  well  meaning  gentleman  and  he  should  be  ]jer- 
mitted  to  express  his  views,  even  if  they  are  wrong 
and  queer.  The  students  will  certamly  eventually  be 
convinced  that  our  order  of  things  is  as  good  as  it 
can  be  made,  and  besides  it  is  so  entertaining  to  hear 
once  in  a  while  another  opinion." 

With  an  expression  of  fatherly  love.  Dr.  Leete 
placed  his  right  hand  on  Edith's  thick  hair  and  said: 
"The  ladies  of  the  court  of  Louis  XVI.  of  France  also 
considered  very  entertaining  the  ideas  that  caused  the 
revolution  and  cost  many  of  the  '^entertained"  ladies 
and  gentlemen  their  heads  beneath  the  guillotine.  — 
Ideas  are  little  sparks.  They  may  easily  cause  a 
conflagration  if  not  watched". 


CHAPTER  III. 

My  studies  had  never  been  directed  to  questions 
of  national  economy.  I  had  never  thought  of  com- 
paring the  merits  of  competition  with  those  of  com- 
munism. When  Dr.  Leete  had  explained  in  his  ])osi- 
tive  and  still  fascinating  manner  the  new  order  of 
things  I  had  hardly  noticed  that  it  was  based  on 
communistic  principles.  I  thought  humanity  had 
reached  at  last  the  millennium,  and  when  Dr.  Leete 
stated  that  his  easy  and  even  luxurious  way  of  living 
represented  the  average  style  of  the  people  of  the 
tw^entieth  century,  I  had  no  doubt  that  everybod" 
was  satisfied  with  the  new  order  of  things. 

My  cool  reception  by  the  students  and  my  conver- 
sation with  Mr.  Forest  had  convinced  me,  that  not 
every  inhabitant  of  the  United  States  in  the  2000th 
year  of  our  Lord  considered  the  present  order  of 
things  the  millennium  and  I  must  say  that  I  noticed 
the  dissatisfaction  with  sincere  sorrow.  For  a  sweet 
peace,  a  tranquillity  never  felt  before,  had  filled  my 
heart,  when  Dr.  Leete  spoke  of  the  absolute  happiness 
of  the  men  of  the  twentieth  century. 

My  new  profession  imjjosed  upon  me  the  duty  of 
studying  national  economy.  Of  course  I  could  have 
pictured  simply  the  social  and  political  circumstan- 
ces, in  which   the   people   of   the  United   States  had 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  29 

lived  113  years  ago,  but  this  woulfl  not  have  satisfied 
me.  I  desired  to  learn,  how  the  civilizations  of  the 
two  centuries,  if  impartially  judged,  would  compare. 
Therefore  I  cultivated  my  accpiaintance  with  Mr. 
Forest,  to  hear  from  him  the  arguments  against  the 
theories  set  forth  by  Dr.  Leete,  although  a  feeling  of 
discomfort  always  overwhelmed  me,  whenever  the 
thought  came  to  me,  that  Forest's  ideas  might  prove 
victorious  over  the  principles  advanced  by  Dr.  Leete. 
For  a  victory  won  by  Forest  could  mean  nothing  else 
but  a  return  to  a  state  of  affairs,  which  I  thoroughly 
disliked,  and  which  1  knew  to  be  full  of  cares  and 
discomforts. 

I  confined  my  next  lecture  to  an  accurate  discrip- 
tion  of  the  state  of  the  labor  market  of  Boston  in 
1887.  Avoiding  carefully  all  exaggerations,  I  drew 
only  indisputable  conclusions  from  the  facts  given, 
showing  how  capital  and  labor  had  lost  equally  by 
the  numerous  strikes  in  those  days  and  compliment- 
ing the  present  order  of  things,  for  making  such 
irrational  economical  conflicts   impossible. 

After  my  lectures  I  always  conversed  with  Mr. 
Forest,  who  was  quite  as  willing  to  discuss  the  new 
order  of  society  as  Dr.   Leete. 

''The  friends  of  tlie  administration  are  calling  me 
a  fault-finder",  said  AL".  Forest,  "and  they  are  right, 
although  they  might  exj^ress  their  opinion  with  more 
civility,  if  they  said,  that  I  am  critically  disposed. 
1  would  criticise  every  administration  under  which  it 
chanced  to  be   my  destiny   to   live,  however  good  or 


.-^o  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

bad  that  administration  might  be.  I  do  not  harbor 
any  animosity  against  the  men,  who  rule  the  United 
States  to-day.  I  even  admit  that  they  exercise  a 
little  more  wisdom,  energy  and  tolerance,  than  did 
the  members  of  the  government,  which  ruled  twelve 
years  ago.  But  the  fundamental  principle  of  their 
system  is  decidedly  wrong  and  so  the  consequences 
must  be  bad  ;  —  whatever  the  members  of  the  admin- 
istration may  do  to  patch  up  the  shortcomings  of 
their  system". 

"So  you  think  that  the  present  system  is  absolutely 
wrong?"    I  queried. 

"Can  you  entertain  any  doubts?"  answered  Forest. 
"Look  around!  Is  the  leading  principle  in  creation 
equality  or  variety  ?  You  find  sometimes  similitude  but 
never  conformity.  Botanists  have  carefully  compared 
thousands  of  leaves,  which  looked  exactly  alike  at 
the  first  glance,  but  which  after  close  examination 
were  found  to  possess  striking  dissimilarities.  Inequal- 
ity is  the  law  of  nature  and  the  attempt  to  establish 
equality  is  therefore  unnatural  and  absurd.  Where- 
ever  such  experiments  have  been  made,  they  have 
ended  in  unqualified  failure.  Even  some  of  the  first 
Christians,  moved  by  brotherly  love  and  charity, 
failed  in  their  efforts  to  establish  communism  perma- 
nently. And  the  lamented  Procrustes  used  two  bed- 
steads in  which  he  placed  his  victims.  He  could  not 
get  along  with  one  size  for  everybody.  We  may  just 
as  well  try  to  make  every  man  six  feet  long,  forty-two 
inches  around   his   chest,   with   a  Grecian   nose,  blue 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  31 

eyes,  light  hair  and  a  lyric  tenor  voice,  as  to  atteni])l 
to  equalize  all  lives  and  reduce  them  to  a  communistic 
state. — Now  consider,  in  connection  with  the  differ- 
ence in  the  mental  and  physical  powers  of  men,  their 
different  inclinations  and  tastes,  the  variety  of  their 
occupations,  and  then  say,  whether  the  establishment 
of  society  on  the  basis  of  communism,  of  absolute 
equality,  is  possible." 

"If  I  have  formed  a  just  appreciation  of  the  organi- 
zation of  your  society,  you  have  recognized  the  right 
of  all  men  to  a  living  by  giving  everybody  an  equal 
share  of  the  products  of  labor",  I  objected;  "but  at 
the  same  time  you  give  everybody  the  chance  to 
select  the  profession  or  trade  most  to  his  taste  and 
you  have  graded  the  men,  belonging  to  ?.  guild,  thus 
inciting  the  ambition  of  the  worker,  to  reach  a  higher 
grade,  and  creatiug  a  diversity  of  positions,  adapted 

to  that  disimilarity  of  men,  you  were  just  speaking 
of". 

"Yes",  said  Forest,  "we  first  established  the  principle 

of  equality  and  then  proceeded  to  arrange  our  system 

upon   a   basis  of  inequality,    thus    avoiding  an  open 

avowal  that  the    new  organization  of  society   was  a 

failure   in  both    theory   and  practice.     The  question 

before  us  is  a  very  plain  one:   ^^Are  we  all  alike'' ?  If 

we  are,  then  communism  is  the  proper  form  of  society 

and   everybody    should   have  an   equal  share  of  the 

products  of  labor.       If   we  are  not  alike,  if  we  differ 

in  mental  power  and  in  physical  ability,  if  the  results 

of  the  labor   of  men    are   dift'erent,    then   there   is  no 

reason,    why    the   wealth    of    the    nation    should   be 


33  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

equally  divided.  But  we  first  proclaim  equality  and 
pretend  that  we  divide  the  products  of  labor  equally 
among  all;  and  then  we  divide  the  "workers  into 
first,  second  and  third  grades,  according  to  ability, 
and  these  grades  are  sitbdivided  \Vi\.o  first  and  second 
classes. ""^^  Here  we  see  the  workers  subdivided  into 
six  classes  for  the  reason,  expressly  stated,  that  their 
ability  differs.  That  their  diligence  also  differs  is 
not  admitted,  but  it  is  nevertheless  the  fact.  The 
inequality  of  men  is  thus  distinctly  recognized,  but 
the  products  of  labor  are  equally  divided  in  the  name 
of  equality!  Now,  everybody  has  a  natural  right  to 
the  products  of  his  activity,  but  we  are  taking  a  large 
share  of  the  results  of  the  labor  of  a  clever  worker  of 
class  A  of  the  first  grade  to  give  it  to  a  lazy  fellow  of 
class  B  of  the  third  grade.  This  is  downright  robbery, 
not  even  hidden  beneath  the  shabby  cloak  of  the  lead- 
ing principle  governing  all  the  acts  of  the  adminis- 
tration ;  and  all  those  who  can  not  admire  this  steal- 
ing, are  denounced  as  enemies  of  the  best  organiza- 
tion of  society,  ever  known  in  the  history  of 
mankind". 

"You  are  to  a  certain  extent  an  admirer  of  the 
civilization'of  the  nineteenth  century",  1  answered  ; 
'and  yet  in  our  times  the  employers  were  accused  by 
some  of  the  labor  agitators  of  "stealing"  a  large 
amount  of  the  products  of  work  by  reaping  very 
large  profits  and  paying  small  wages.  I  would  rather 
favor    an    ecpial    division    of    all    properties    than    a 

*)    Page   125. 


LOOKING   FORWARD.  33 

system,  by  which  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
employers  can  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
the  masses  of  the  laboring  people." 

"I  am  not  an  admirer  of  the  civilzation  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  Mr.  West,"  Forest  exclaimed.  "I 
simply  maintain,  that  the  principles  of  competition 
under  which  society  worked  a  hundred  years  ago  was 
far  superior  to  the  covimunisvi,  under  which  we  are 
laboring.  The  unjust  profits  of  the  employers,  of 
which  you  complain,  could  have  been  easily  done 
away  with,  if  your  workmen  had  organized  themselves 
into  co-partnerships  or  associations.  There  was  no 
law  a  hundred  years  ago  to  prevent  a  dozen  shoe- 
makers renting  a  loft  with  steam  power,  purchasing 
a  few  sewing  and  other  machines  and  making  boots 
and  shoes  at  their  own  risk.  There  was  no  law  to 
prevent  all  the  other  workingmen  buying  their  boots 
and  shoes  at  the  shop  of  the  co-operative  association, 
thus  securing  for  the  members  of  the  latter  the  profits 
of  the  manufacturer,  wholesaler,  retailer  and  work- 
man. The  laborers  of  all  the  different  trades  "had  a 
perfect  right  to  organize  such  co-operative  societies 
and  thus  secure  all  the  profit  that  was  in  their  labor. 
If  the  workmen  preferred  not  to  make  use  of  this 
chance,  if  they  did  not  care  to  assume  the  cares  and 
risks  of  conducting  a  business  for  themselves,  if  they 
would  rather  work  for  an  employer,  leaving  the  cares 
and  risks  of  the  managements  entirelv  to  him,  they 
had  certainly  no  reason  to  complain   of  the  profit   of 


34  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

the  employer.  And  if  they  were  not  satisfied  with 
their  treatment  they  could  at  any  time  seek  other  em- 
ployment ;  —  a  thing  that  the  workmen  of  our  days 
can  not  do,  for  there  is  only  one  employer,  the 
national  administration.  —  The  principle,  that  a  man 
has  a  right  to  what  he  produces,  was  not  questioned 
under  your  form  of  production.  But  we  have  in 
the  name  of  equality  and  justice  established  the 
''right"  to  rob  an  industrious  man  of  a  part  of  the 
product  of  his  labor  and  give  this  booty  to  his  lazy 
comrade.  If  the  workingmen  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, instead  of  sacrificing  enormous  sums  in  strikes, 
had  organized  one  trade  after  another  into  co-ope- 
rative associations,  they  would  have  solved  what  they 
styled  the  social  questions  with  comparatively  little 
trouble.  And  they  would  have  saved  us  from  the 
present  outrageous  form  of  society." 

"The  strikes  were  an  effect  merely  of  the  concen- 
tration of  capital  in  greater  masses,  than  had  ever 
been  known  before",  I  said,  repeating  the  views  of 
Dr.  Leete  on  this  question.  "Before  this  concentra- 
tion began.  .  .  .the  individual  workman  was  relatively 
important  and  independent  in  his  relations  to  his 
employers.  Moreover,  when  a  little  capital  or  a  new 
idea  was  enough  to  start  a  man  in  business  for 
himself,  workingmen  were  constantly  becoming 
employers  and  there  was  no  hard  or  fast  line  between 
the  two  classes.  Labor  unions  were  needless  then 
and  general  strikes  out  of  the  question".*) 

*)  t'agc  52. 


LOOKING   FORWARD.  35 

"In  your  place,    Mr.    West,    I    would    not    endorse 
those    sentences   of    Dr.    Leete",   said    Forest   with  a 
smile,   ^'for  the  Doctor  has  had  frequent  occasions  to 
change    his   mind    on     this    subject   and    persists    in 
repeating  his    erroneous    statements,   although    I  and 
others  have  disproved  them   until    further  repetitions 
of  our  arguments  became   tedious.      Strikes  are  not, 
as  Dr.  Leete  pretends  to   believe,  comparatively  late 
appearances  on  the  battle  fields  of  national  economy. 
One  of  the   biggest   strikes    that   ever   occurred,   the 
''secessio    in   montem   sacrum",   took  place  in  Rome 
as  early  as  494  before  Christ,  and,  during  the  centuries 
of  the  middle  ages,  strikes  for  higher  wages  frequently 
occurred,    although    in    those  days   labor  was   much 
better     organized      (in     trades     unions,     guilds     and 
"Zuenfte")   and  more  powerful  than  capital.    And  as 
for  the  impossibility  of   laborers  ever  becoming  em- 
ployers, I  can  show  you  in  the  college  library  a  copy 
of  the  German  paper,  the  "Freie  Presse",  published 
in  the  city  of  Chicago  anno    1888,  where  the   editor, 
in  contradicting  similar  statements  of  the  communists 
of  those  days,  points   to   the   fact,    that  in  1888  there 
were  12,000  German  house  owners,  manufacturers  and 
well  to  do  or  rich    business   men    in  Chicago,  who  ail 
had    come   to  the    city    poor.     When  these  Germans 
came    to    Chicago    only    a    very   few   of  them    spoke 
English,  still   they   were  able  to    acumulate  fortunes. 
This  disi)roves  the  statement,  that  the   people  at   the 
end  of  the   last  century  were  in  the    clutches  of  cajji- 
tal  and  unable  to  free  themselves.  —  It   is  the  easiest 


36  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

thing  in  the  world  to  make  wild  statements,  but  it  is 
sometimes  difficult  to  substantiate  them.  And  Dr. 
Leete  is  an  adapt  at   making  statements'\ 

*'But  are  you  not  getting  along  in  good  style?"'  1 
asked,  hoping  to  stop  Forest's  complaints,  by  point- 
ing to  an  undisputable  fact.  "Are  you  not  enjoying 
an  unprecedented  prosperity  and  is  not  this  general 
result,  the  definite  annihilation  of  poverty,  an  achieve- 
ment worth  small  sacrifices  ?  '' 

"We  are  not  getting  along  in  good  style.  We  are 
not  enjoying  an  unprecedented  prosperity.  You  will 
discover  very  soon,  that  you  are  overestimating  the 
character  and  the  fruits  of  our  civilization.  And  so 
far  as  the  annihilation  of  poverty  is  concerned,  it 
amounts  practically  to  nothing  but  the  enrichment  of 
the  awkward,  stupid  and  lazy  people,  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  work  of  the  clever  and  industrious 
women  and  men.  You  could  have  done  that  113 
years  ago,  but  you  were  not  foolish  and  unjust 
enough  to  commit  such  a  robbery." 

"If  the  people  don't  like  the  present  organization 
of  society,  why  do  they  not  change  it?"  I  asked. 
"From  your  remarks,  I  have  drawn  the  conclusion, 
that  you  have  no  opposition  jjarty  worth  speaking  of, 
for  you  said,  there  are  only  a  few  opposition  papers 
published  in  the  country.  This  seems  to  prove  that 
the  people  are  satisfied  with  the  present  state  of 
affairs". 

Forest  looked  very  severe  as  he  answered:  "You 
are  uf  course  under  the  impression,  that  we  are  acting 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  37 

with  the  same  Hberty  yon  were  enjoying  113  years 
ago.  But  everything  in  political  life  has  changed 
since  those  days.  With  the  exception  of  a  limited 
number  of  government  officials  and  a  few  contractors, 
your  citizens  were  perfectly  independent  of  the  ad- 
ministration ;  to-day  the  administration  rules  every- 
thing, and  everybody  is  more  or  less  dependent  upon 
the  good  will  of  our  rulers.  Whoever  dares  to  openly 
oppose  the  ruling  spirits  may  be  sure  that  all  the 
wrath  and  all  the  unpleasantness  at  the  command  of 
the  administration,  will  be  piled  upon  him  and  his 
relatives  and  friends.  Therefore  the  number  of  men 
who  are  daring  enough  to  challenge  the  ire  of  the 
goverLmjut  is  ^•ery  small,  although  a  great  many  are 
discontented  with  the  present  state  of  affairs." 

"But  why  don't  people  elect  men  to  congress,  who 
would  pass  laws,  that  would  change  a  state  of  things, 
so  unsatisfactory  to  the  masses?"  I  asked,  satisfied, 
that  Forest  in  his  fault-finding  mood,  was  using  his 
dark  })aint  altogether  to  freely. 

''Congress  has  very  little  influence  nowadays", 
Forest  answered.  "The  power  rests  almost  entirely 
with  the  president  and  the  chiefs  of  the  ten  great 
departments.  They  liave  well  nigh  absolute  power 
and  resemble  somewhat  the  council  of  ten  in  Venice, 
when  that  aristocratic  Republic  was  at  the  height  of 
its  power.  As  it  lies  within  their  discretion  to 
assign  each  and  every  jjerson  to  a  good  or  a  poor 
position  for  twenty-four  years  antl  even  to  order  a 
draft  from  the  ranks   of  the  men  over  forty-five  years 


38  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

of  age,  thus  being  able  to  get  disliked  men  back 
under  the  direct  discipline  of  the  industrial  army, 
they  have  a  power  over  all  the  people  that  no  tyrant 
of  your  times  ever  dreamed  of  establishing". 

"You  know  of  course",  Mr.  Forest  continued,  ''that 
all  recruits  belong  for  the  first  three  years  of  their 
service  to  the  class  of  unskilled  or  common  laborers. 
It  is  not  until  after  this  period,  during  which  he  is 
assignable  to  any  work  at  \.\\q  discretion  of  his  superi- 
ors, that  the  young  man  is  allowed  to  select  a  special 
avocation".*)  You  can  readily  see  that  the  young 
man  is  during  these  three  years  at  the  absolute  mercy 
of  his  superiors.  They  may  assign  him  to  easy  and 
clean  work,  or  they  may  send  him  to  do  a  dirty  and 
unhealthy  job.  He  has  to  obey  orders.  For  "a  man 
able  to  do  duty  and  persistently  refusing,  is  sentenced 
to  solitary  imprisonment  on  bread  and  water  until  he 
consents". f) 

'•You  know  furthermore,  that  "individual  records 
are  kept  and  that  excellence  receives  distinction,  cor- 
responding with  the  penalties  that  negligence  incurs." 
Dr.  Leete  has  undoubtedly  told  you  this  and  further- 
more "that  it  is  not  policy  with  us  to  permit  youth- 
ful recklessness  or  indiscretion,  when  not  deeply 
culpable,  to  handicap  the  future  careers  of  young 
men  and  that  all  who  have  passed  the  unclassified 
grade  without  serious  disgrace,  have  an  equal  oppor- 
tunity to  choose  the  life  employment  they  have  the 

*)  I'i^g^"  70. 

f)    Page  128. 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  39 

most  liking  for  ....  Now  not  only  are  the  individual 
records  of  these  apprentices  for  ability  and  industry 
strictly  kept  and  excellency  distinguished  by  suitable 
distinctions,  but  upon  the  average  of  his  record  dur- 
ing his  apprenticeship  the  standing  given  the  appren- 
tice among  the  full  workmen  depends.  .  .  .*)  While 
the  internal  organizations  of  the  various  industries, 
mechanical  and  agricultural,  differ  according  to  their 
peculiar  conditions,  they  agree  in  a  general  division 
of  their  workers  into  first,  second  and  third  grades, 
according  to  ability,  and  these  grades  are  in  many 
cases  subdivided  into  first  and  second  classes.  Ac- 
cording to  his  staiiding  as  an  apprefitice,  a  young 
man  is  assigned  his  place  as  ^  first,  second  or  tJiird 
grade  worker.  Regradings  take  place  in  each  in 
dustry  at  intervals,  corresponding  with  the  length  of 
the  apprenticeship. .. .  One  of  the  notable  advan- 
tages of  a  high  grading,  is  the  privilege  it  gives  the 
worker  to  select  which  of  the  various  branches  or 
processes  of  his  industry  he  will  follow  as  his  spe- 
cialty"f) ....  Dr.  Leete  has  of  course  further  in- 
formed you,  "that  so  far  as  possible,  the  })references 
of  the  poorest  workman  are  considered  in  assigning 
him  his  line  of  work....  While  however  the  wish 
of  the  lower  grade  man  is  consulted  so  far  as  the 
exigencies  of  the  service  permit,  he  is  considered  only 
after  the  upper  grade  men  are  provided  for,  and  often 
he  has  to  put  u})  with  second  or  third  choice  or  even 

*)  Page  124. 
f)  Page   125. 


4'>  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

with  an  arbitrary  assignment  when  help  is  needed. 
This  privilege  of  selection  attends  every  regrading, 
and  when  a  man  loses  his  grade,  he  also  risks  having 
to  exchange  the  sort  of  work  he  likes  best  for  some 
other  less  to  his  taste ....  High  places  in  the  nation 
are  open  only  to  the  highest  class  men."*) 

These  regulations  bear  out  what  I  just  said  in  regard 
to  the  power  of  the  administration.  The  lieutenants, 
captains  and  colonels,  are  appointed  by  the  generals 
of  the  guild,  who  in  turn  are  under  the  command  of 
the  ten  chiefs  of  the  ten  great  departments.  These 
officers  may  give  their  young  friends,  who  enter  the 
industrial  army  as  apprentices,  easy  jobs  and  good 
records  and  enable  their  friends  on  the  strength  of 
their  records,  as  soon  as  they  have  j^assed  the  first 
three  years  of  service,  to  enter  the  first  class  of  the 
first  grade  of  a  trade.  And  such  a  favorite,  who, 
backed  by  influential  friends,  has  passed  an  easy  time 
as  an  apprentice  and  who  has  received  at  once  the 
first  class  of  the  first  grade  of  his  trade  is  immediately 
appointable  to  a  lieutenantship  and  he  can  run  up  to 
the  higher  honors  in  a  few  years.  —  You  can  not  deny, 
Mr.  West,  that  orr  regulations  permit  such  a  favor- 
itism." 

I  had  to  admit  that  such  things  were  possible. 

Mr.  Forest  continued:  "On  the  other  hand,  the 
young  men,  who  are  not  the  sons  and  friends  of  our 
leaders,  are  fortunate  if  they  can  secure  a  second 
grade  position,  with  a  record,   that  does   not  exclude 

*)  Pages  125  and  126. 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  4^ 

all  hopes  of  further  promotion.  Relatives  of  out- 
spoken opponents  of  the  administration,  can  be 
placed  in  the  second  class  of  the  third  grade  of  their 
trade,  and  their  record  can  be  so  kejU,  that  they  can 
never  hope  to  secure  a  higher  position.  And  such  a 
favoritism  is  not  only  possible,  but  it  absolutely  does 
exist.  The  sons  and  relatives  of  men,  who  are  known 
as  opponents  of  the  administration,  have  jjractically 
to  live  worse  than  slaves,  and  are  sometimes  treated 
like  foot  balls". 

''Is  there  no  court  of  appeals?"  I  asked. 

"Yes,  such  an  abused  man  or  woman  can  go  to  a 
Judge",  Mr.  Forest  answered.  "But,  the  minor  Judges 
are  merely  men  who  have  passed  the  45  th  year  of  age 
and  have  been  appointed  to  such  a  position  for  five 
years  by  the  president.  They — as  Dr.  Leete  of 
course  told  you— adjudicate  all  cases  where  a  member 
of  the  industrial  army  makes  a  complaint  of  unfair- 
ness against  an  officer.  All  such  questions  are  /iea?-d 
and  settled  without  appeal  by  a  single  Judge,  three 
Judges  being  required  only  in  graver  cases.  The 
efficiency  of  industry  requires  the  st?'ictest  discipline 
in  the  army  of  labor"*) —  The  men  appointed  by  the 
President  are  of  course  trustworthy  friends  of  the 
administration  and  not  expected  to  decide  in  such 
cases  against  the  officers  of  the  government  and  in 
favor  of  the  "Kickers".  And  as  such  cases  are 
settled  without  appeal,  the  ill-used  member  of  the 
industrial  army  has   to  go   back   to   his  old   position, 

*)  Page  206. 


42  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

where  the  superior,  whom  he  has  accused,  will  cer- 
tainly not  treat  him  better  than  before.  On  the 
contrary,  such  an  officer  has  a  first-class  chance  to 
"get  even"  with  his  dissatisfied  subordinate,  especially 
at  the  next  regrading,  when  he  can  put  him  into  the 
last  class  and  grade,  if  the  unfortunate  fellow  is  not 
already  there.  If  such  is  the  case,  the  offended 
officer  can  at  least  assign  the  "Kicker"  to  the  most 
objectionable  work". 

The  picture,  thus  drawn  by  Mr.  Forest,  appeared 
so  dreadful,  especially  when  compared  by  me  with 
the  descriptions  of  Dr.  Leetfe,  that  I  could  not  collect 
myself  sufficiently  to  try  an  argument  against  the 
conclusions  of  my  predecessor  in  the  professorship 
of  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century.. 

After  a  short  pause  the  present  janitor  continued: 
"Now  consider  in  connection  with  all  the  facts  and 
institutions  that  I  have  mentioned,  that  "///^  workers 
have  no  suffrage  to  exercise  or  anything  to  say  about 
the  choice'''  of  their  superiors.'^) — "The  general  of 
the  guild  appoints  to  the  ranks  under  him,  but  he 
himself  is  not  appointed,  but  chosen  by  suffrage 
among  the  superintendents  by  vote  of  the  honorary 
members  of  the  guilds,  that  is  by  those  who  have 
served  their  time  in  the  guild  and  received  their  dis- 
charge"f). —  So  my  dear  Mr.  West,  the  members  of 
the  industrial  army  are  twenty-four  years  absolutely 
at  the  mercy  of  their  superiors.     If  they  desire  to 

*)   Page  277. 
f)  Page  189. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  43 

have  a  good  time  they  must  blindly  obey  orders  and 
seek  favor  by  all  means  in  their  power.  They  must 
influence  their  friends  who  have  votes  not  only  to 
stand  by  the  administration,  but  to  do  it  in  a  demon- 
strative manner.  Occasional  presents  of  wines  and 
cigars  may  secure  the  friendship  of  some  of  the 
officers.  Otherwise  the  member  of  the  industrial 
army  may  lead  for  twenty-four  years  a  life,  compared 
with  which  the  lot  of  a  plantation  slave  or  of  the  poor- 
est coal  digger  150  years  ago  would  be  called  an  en- 
viable fate.  For  a  plantation  slave  was  considered  a 
valuable  piece  of  property  and  not  recklessly  destroyed, 
while  the  poorest  coal  digger  could  leave  his  job  and 
go  to  some  other  place,  until  he  found  more  suit- 
able employment.  A  member  of  our  industrial  army, 
who  has  drawn  down  upon  himself  the  ire  of  the 
officers  of  the  administration  or  who  is  placed  on  the 
list  of  the  enemies  of  society  on  account  of  the  oppo- 
sition of  his  voting  relatives,  leads  a  life  that  may 
be  termed  as  ''twenty  four  years  of  hell  on  eanh"! 
I  have  demonstrated  to  you  now,  Mr.  West,  why 
congress  has  no  influence.  The  vast  majority  of  its 
members  are  continually  trying  to  please  the  admin- 
istration, for  the  purpose  of  securing  favors  for  them- 
selves, their  relatives  and  their  friends,"  said  Mr. 
Forest  in  conclusion.  ^'And  this  is  the  equality  of 
the  best  organization  society  ever  had  ;  this  is  what 
Dr.  Leete  calls  the  millennium". 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"It  is  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  nature  and, 
therefore,  right  that  a  man  should  push  liis  son,  his 
relatives  and  friends,  and  I  would  not  blame  a  man 
for  doing  this  ;  I  should  rather  denounce  him  for  not 
doing  it — always  provided,  of  course,  that  said  son, 
said  relatives  or  friends  were  qualified  to  fill  the 
positions  to  which  they  are  appointed",  said  Mr. 
Forest  at  our  next  conversation.  '-I  remember  that  I 
have  read  in  certain  books  a  great  deal  about  the 
nepotism  shown  at  your  time  in  the  distribution  of 
the  .federal  patronage,  and  that  General  Grant  was 
accused  of  always  preferring  his  relatives  and  friends 
in  making  appointments.  I  sympathize  with  that 
great  commander  in  the  sturdiness  with  which  he 
stood  by  his  friends,  and  I  am  inclined  to  excuse  the 
mistakes,  he  sometimes  made  in  his  appointments, 
because  they  were  mistakes  of  his  heart  that  was  al 
ways  true  to  his  friends  and  sometimes  was  inclined 
to  overestimate  their  ability,  or  sense  of  h(mor.  If 
the  ties  of  blood  and  friendship  are  not  to  be  consid- 
ered, what  else  should  be  ?  And  since  a  man  is  bound 
to  know  the  character  and  ability  of  his  relatives  and 
friends  better  than  the  qualities   of  other  people,   he 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  45 

should   certainly    first    api)()int    those    next  to   him  to 
positions  for  which  they  are  (lualified." 

''But  the  trouble  with  our  ])olitical  and  social  sys- 
tem is,  that  it  is  bound  to  breed  not  only  favoritism, 
but  also  corruption  on  the  largest  scale.  One  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  years  ago,  the  men  at  the  head  of 
the  National  Government  or  those  who  were  influen- 
tial with  them  were  also  sometimes  filling  places, 
where  for  little  work  a  good  salary  was  i)aid,  with 
unworthy  women  and  men,  but  such  sinecures  were 
comparatively  few  and  far  between.  The  number  of 
^-"ederal  officials  in  your  days  was,  if  I  am  not  mis- 
taken about  80,000,  and  the  postmasters  of  the  small 
country  towns,  who  made  up  the  largest  part  of  the 
80,000  were  paid  such  a  beggarly  commission  for  the 
sale  of  postage  stamps,  that  no  one  could  afford  to 
accept  such  positions  except  trades  people,  who  kept 
a  store,  ^yhere  they  had  to  be  all  day  anyhow,  and  to 
whom  the  honor  and  small  profits  were  an  object. 
And  then  the  incumbents  of  all  the  offices  that  could 
be  classed  as  sinecures,  were  changed  exery  four  or 
eight  years.  Our  administrations  have  a  very  long 
life.  The  one  ousted  twelve  years  ago  lasted  twenty- 
six  years.  And  the  number  of  positions  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  government  is  very  large.  There  is  onj 
lieutenant  or  overseer  to  about  each  and  every  twelve 
men  or  women,  not  to  mention  the  cajjtains,  colonels, 
etc.  ;  and  the  amount  of  bookkeeping  done,  is  sim])ly 
enormous.  We  are  kee])ing  in)oks  as  you  kncnv,  I 
suppose,  in  all  the  producing  as  well  as  in  the  distribu- 


4^  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

ting  departments,  and   more   than  that:   every  citizen 
ha:;  an  account  in  the  police  books*). 

''When  you  take  into  consideration  our  great  and 
growing  population,  you  can  form  some  idea  of  how 
enormous  this  work  is.  You  are  aware,  that  the 
North  American  territory,  formerly  under  British  rule, 
has  been  annexed  to  the  United  States,  and  that  the 
population,  according  to  the  census  of  1990,  numbered 
414,000,000.  It  is  now  estimated  at  500,000,000**). 
The  complicated  system  of  bookkeeping , required  by 
the  communistic  plan  of  production,  and  the  short- 
ness of  working  hours  granted  to  the  bookkeepers, 
who  are  all  preferred  men  and  women,  favorites  of 
the  members  of  the  administration,  m.ade  it  necessary 
to  appoint  a  bookkeeper  for  every  fifty  people.  Un- 
der the  former  administration  we  had  one  bookkeeper 
for  every  forty-two  people.  This  gives  to  the  gov- 
ernment a  chance  to  provide,  at  its  own  pleasure, 
over  10,000,000  of  men  and  women  with  clean  aud 
easy  work.  Add  to  these  10,000,000  bf  positions  about 
10,000,000  officers  of  the  industrial  army,  from  the 
lieutenantships  up  to  the  positions  of  colonel ;  add, 
furthermore,  the  clerkships  in  the  distributing  places 

*)   Page  87. 

**)  The  first  census  of  the  United  States  was  taken  in  1790, 
when  3,929,314  people  were  counted.  In  i83o  the  population 
numbei-ed  50,155,738,  and  in  1890  it  is  about  68,000,000.  In  one 
hundred  years  it  has  been  multiplied  l:)y  16.  Ifthe  rate  of  increase 
should  continue  t(j  be  the  same,  the  United  States  would  have  in 
1990,  without  the  population  of  Canada,  about  1,040,000,000  of 
people.  I  have  figured  an  increase  of  about  twenty  percent  f  )r 
each  decade,  which  would  give  for  the  year  2000  about  500 
millions  of  inhabitants  for  the  United  States  and  Canada. 


LOOKING   FORWARD.  47 

and  many  other  preferred  positions,  and  you  can  see 
at  a  glance  what  an  enormous  power  the  administra- 
tion possesses  and  how  tempting  this  power  is." 

"But  is  it  not  necessary  for  those  applying  for  the 
responsible  position  of  a  bookkeeper  to  have  jjassed 
through  a  course  of  study  in  order  to  be  qualified  for 
such  important  duties?  "    I  inquired. 

"Bookkeeping  is  part  of  the  instruction  in  our 
schools",  Mr.  Forest  answered,  "and  the  bookkeeping 
m  the  public  offices  is  not  well  done.  So  the  respons- 
ibility, resting  on  the  shoulders  of  the  favorites  of  the 
members  of  the  administration,  does  not  harass  the 
minds  of  these  preferred  people  very  much.  It 
is,  of  course,  impossible  for  an  outsider  to  obtain  an  in- 
sight into  the  workings  of  the  present  admmistration, 
and  to  know  how  the  books  are  kept.  But  when  the  late 
administration  went  out  of  office  twelve  years  ago,  an 
unfathomable  pool  of  corruption  was  uncovered.  An 
inventory  of  the  goods  on  hand  was  taken,  and  it  was 
stated  that  the  books  showed  a  shortage  of  more  than 
four  hundred  and  thirty-two  million  dollars.  The 
members  of  the  ousted  administration  declared  this 
statement  to  be  entirely  false,  that  it  had  been  "doc- 
tored" by  the  ex])erts  of  the  administration,  for  the 
jjurpose  of  casting  discredit  upon  the  members  of  the 
old  government.  The  accused  officers  admitted  that 
shortages  were  possible,  for  the  reason,  that  all  the 
rlerks  whose  duty  it  was  to  measure  goods,  were 
inclined  to  give  the  people  good  weight  and  large 
measure,  but  that  these  shortages  would  not  reach  the 


4S  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

figure  of  $432,000,000,  and  that  the  deficiency  couid 
not  be  considered  as  a  proof  of  want  of  honesty  on 
the  part  of  the  old  officers.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
new  officers  claimed,  that  the  enormous  shortages 
were  due  to  the  corruption  of  the  members  and 
prominent  supporters  of  the  ousted  administration, 
who  had  always  overdrawn  their  accounts,  and  had 
not  been  charged  with  the  goods  taken  out  in  excess 
of  their  credit  cards". 

I  asked  Mr.  Forest  what  ne  thought  of  these 
charges . 

"I  think,  they  were  to  a  large  extent  well  founded. 
The  temptation  under  our  wretched  system  is  too 
great.  That  the  leaders  should  give  to  their  relatives 
and  next  friends  good  positions  would  not  be  blame- 
worthy, if  the  appointees  were  fit  to  fill  the  places 
given  them.  But  the  best  places,  numbering  in  all 
about  twenty  millions,  are  not  filled  with  the  best  and 
most  able  men.  They  go,  so  far  as  they  are  not  given 
to  the  relatives  and  friends  of  the  leaders,  to  friends 
of  the  administration,  in  order  to  keep  the  latter  in 
power.  They  are  given  to  the  sons  and  relatives  and 
friends  of  the  most  active  supporters  of  the  govern- 
ment. And  even  this  would  be  tolerable,  if  the 
favoritism  stopped  there,  at  the  boundary  of  corrup- 
tion and  tyranny.      But  it  does  not". 

*'Are  you  accusing  the  present  administration  and 
all  its  friends  of  corruption  and  tyranny  ?"  I  asked, 
feeling  that  I  should  have  to  end   my  conversations 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  49 

with  Mr.  Forest,  if  he  should  make  disparaging 
charges,  even  indirectly,  against  my  host. 

''I  am  speakmg  of  a  system  and  I  am  mentioning 
only  such  facts  and  deeds  as  I  can  prove",  Mr.  Forest 
answered.  "I  am  not  accusing  men  for  any  pleasure 
it  gives  me  to  do  so.  I  know  that  your  question  refers 
to  Dr.  Leete  and,  though  it  is  not  a  direct  one,  yet  I 
will  meet  it  squarely.  I  regard  Dr.  Leete  as  one  of 
the  best  and  purest  of  men  among  the  party -leaders; 
but  he,  also,  is  making  use  of  the  advantages  that  our 
system  offers  to  the  men  in  power." 

''Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  substantiate  what  you 
say?"   I  asked  quietly,  but  sharply. 

"I  will  leave  it  to  you  to  say,  whether  I  am  going 
too  far  in  my  statement",  Forest  continued.  "Did 
not  Dr.  Leete  inform  you  that  he  has  been  "cherishing 
the  idea  of  building  a  laboratory  in  the  large  garden 
of  his  house?"*)  And  did  he  not  tell  you  that  he  sent 
for  the  workmen  and  that  they  unearthed  the  vault 
in  which  you  slept?"f) 

"Indeed,  Dr.  Leete  said  that  he  intended  to  build  a 
chemical  laboratory",  I  admitted;  "but  is  not  the 
amount  of  his  credit-card  large  enough  to  permit  him 
such  an  expenditure?" 

Forest  looked  somewhat  amused  and  asked  me,  if  I 
had  ever  looked  at  the  total  amount  the  credit-caid 
called  for.  I  confessed  that  I  never  had;  noticing 
that   the   style   of  living  of  Dr.   Leete  was  luxurious 

*)  T'age  34. 
t)  Page  34. 


50  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

enough  for  anybody,  I  had  not  troubled  myself  to 
ascertain  how  much  the  country  allowed  each  and 
every  inhabitant  per  year. 

"Well",  said  Mr.  Forest,  *'we  will  discuss  the  wealth 
of  the  nation  at  some  other  time  To-day  we  will 
continue  to  investigate  the  tendency  of  the  commun- 
istic system  to  breed  favoritism,  corruption,  servility 
and  suppression  of  opponents.  —  As  for  Dr.  Leete, 
he  is  building  his  laboratory  in  spite  of  the  fact,  that 
such  an  enterprise  is  entirely  against  the  intention  and 
spirit  of  our  institutions.  There  is  a  very  good  labo- 
ratory of  the  kind  in  the  basement  of  this  college, 
and  Dr.  Leete  would  certainly  be  welcome,  if  he  should 
ask  permission  to  experiment  there  at  his  pleasure. 
His  influence,  if  nothing  else,  would  secure  him  a 
permit.  But  vanity  causes  him  to  erect  a  superfluous 
building,  which  will  give  the  Radicals  a  new  and  visi- 
ble argument  against  the  ruling  clique". 

"What  Radicals  are  you  speaking  of  ?"   I  asked. 

''I  am  refering  to  the  radical  communists  who 
object  to  the  present  state  of  affairs,  because  they 
desire  to  abolish  religious  services,  matrimony  and 
all  personal-property,  institutions  that  are  at  present 
tolerated.  We  will  speak  of  our  political  parties  and 
their  principles  later.  I  simply  desired  to  establish 
to  your  own  satisfaction,  or  dissatisfaction,  the  fact, 
that  Dr.  Leete  is  erecting  for  his  private  use  and  in 
violation  of  communistic  principles,  a  chemical  labo- 
ratory, a  very  expensive  affair,  for  which  the  credit- 
cards  of  ten  men  would  not  pay,  and  thus  challenging 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  $1 

the  criticism  of  all  the  enemies  of  the  administration". 
"Cannot  Dr.  Leete  pay  a  fair  rent  for  the  labora- 
tory?" I  rejoined.  "I  should  think  that  the  abun- 
dance of  labor  could  not  be  used  to  a  better  advantage 
than  to  erect  buildings,  the  rent  for  which  will  in- 
crease the  income  of  the  nation". 

"But  there  is  no  abundance  of  labor,  as  you  will 
discover  in  due  time",  said  Forest.  "And  if  you  will 
imagine  what  would  happen,  if  every  citizen  should 
demand  a  similar  outlay  of  labor  and  instruments  to 
please  his  notions,  you  will  undoubtedly  see,  that  Dr. 
Leete  is  assuming  an  exceptional  position,  which,  not 
only  savors  of  favoritism  but,  also,  involves  an  in- 
discreet abuse  of  power,  calculated  to  create  bad 
blood". 

I  could  not  very  well  refute  the  arguments  of  Mr. 
Forest,  and  so  was  silent. 

"But  favoritism  and  the  occasional  abuse  of  ])Ower 
for  the  accommodation  of  men  like  Dr.  Leete,  are  not 
the  worst  features  of  our  present  form  of  govern- 
ment", he  continued,  "and  the  fact  that  influential 
men  frequently  receive  presents  of  silks,  furs,  and 
jewelry  for  their  wives  and  daughters,  and  of  wine 
and  cigars  for  themselves,  from  people  seeking  the 
intercession  of  these  powerful  men,  in  order  to  i)ro- 
cure  preferred  positions  for  themselves  or  for  rela- 
tives and  friends,  could  also  be  borne  although,  of 
course,  they  are  proofs  of  political  corruption.  But 
the  worst  consequences  of  this  damnable  communism 
are  tyranny  and  the  possibility  of  brutal    persecution 


52  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

of  the  opponents  of  the  administration  on  the  one 
hand,  and  servihty,  adulation  and  calumny  on  the 
otl^er.  Every  man  and  every  body  of  men  who  have 
gained  certain  advantages  or  occupy  desired  posi- 
tions will  defend  themselves  against  all  attacks  of 
their  opponents.  So  will  political  parties  try  to  keep 
themselves  in  power  by  rewarding  their  faithful  wor- 
kers and  by  crowding  back  their  opponents.  It  is, 
therefore,  very  dangerous  to  invest  a  great  govern- 
ment with  arbitrary  powers,  which  permit  the  rulers 
to  make  the  people  dependent  upon  the  good  will  of 
their  officers,  even  in  their  daily  occupation,  all  their 
life  long". 

''According  to  your  description  the  present  state  of 
society  appears  to  be  an  unbearable  condition  of 
affairs",  I  said, 

"If  you  inquire  among  the  members  of  the  different 
guilds,  especially  among  the  farmers,"  Mr.  Forest 
continued,  "you  will  find  that  I  am  describing  things 
just  as  they  are.  Every  member  of  the  industrial 
army  knows  that  ability  and  industry  alone  will  secure 
a  desirable  position  only  in  exceptional  cases,  if  at 
all ;  that  political  influence  is.  the  almighty  factor  in 
every  affair  of  our  lives,  and  that  the  industrial  army 
is  governed  by  officers  whom  the  worker  must  try  to 
please,  by  personal  adulation,  by  presents,  by  a  slav- 
ish devotion  to  the  orders  of  the  superiors,  and 
indirectly  by  inducing  all  the  members  of  his  family 
and  all  his  friends  to  support  every  measure  and 
every  member   of  the    administration.     If  the  mem- 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  53 

bers  of  the  industrial  army  could  elect  their  officers, 

the  discipline  would  of  course,  not  be  so  strict,  as  it  is 

now  ;  but  even  an  occasional  row   amongst  the  men 

would    be  preferable   to   the   present   state  of  affairs, 

where  every  one  who  happens  to    be   unpopular  with 

the  ruling  party  is  leading  a  terrible  existence.     The 

number  of  suicides  is  therefore  becoming  larger  every 

year  and  is  to-day  four  times  greater  than  in  your 
times". 

''The  number  of  suicides  in  European  armies  113 
years  ago  was  very  large",  I  remarked  thoughtfully, 
''although  the  men  had  everything  they  needed  in  the 
line  of  lodging,  food  and  clothing". 

"Yes,"  said  Forest,  "the  necessities  of  life  without 
liberty  are  of  little  value.  The  soldiers  of  your 
time  threw  away  their  lives,  because  they  did  not 
consider  a  life  without  freedom  worth  living,  and  still 
their  term  of  service  lasted  only  three  or  five  years, 
and  they  had  but  a  comparatively  easy  duty  to  per- 
form in  times  of  peace.  The  service  in  our  industrial 
army  lasts,  at  the  best,  24  years  of  our  life.  The 
men  and  women  are  at  the  mercy  of  their  officers, 
and  they  can  appeal  against  maltreatment  to  other 
members  of  the  administration  only  to  judges  who 
decide  definitely  such  cases,  generally  by  simply 
sending  back  the  complainants  to  their  w^ork  with  an 
admonishment  to  try  to  win  the  good  will  of  their 
superiors,  and  thus  secure  promotion." 

"You  have  been  speaking  about  politicians,  Mr. 
Forest",  I  said  "Do  many  men  take  an  active  part 
in  political  life?" 


54  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

"I  should  say  they  did",  my  predecessor  answered. 
"Many  of  the  men  from  45  years  upwards,  and  many 
women  do  little  else,  except  busy  themselves  with 
politics.  They  can  live  on  their  credit-cards  wherever 
they  please,  and  many  of  them  prefer  to  spend  their 
time  in  Washington,  "hustling  around"  in  a  very  lively 
fashion,  trying  to  gain  favors  for  their  friends,  and  for 
such  people  as  address  themselves  to  the  hustlers. 
The  lobby  in  the  halls  of  Congress  in  your  days  is 
described  as  a  bad  crowd,  but  to  compare  it  with 
the  hustlers  of  our  days,  would  be  like  comparing  a 
Sunday  school  with  pandemonium.  Millions  of 
people  who  desire  better  work  or  promotion,  and  who 
have  nothing  to  hope  from  the  influence  they  are 
able  to  command  at  home,  write  to  the  hustlers  at 
Washington  to  secure  their  services." 

"But  what  can  the  seekers  of  favors  offer  to  those 
who  live  in  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  gaining 
favor  for  other  people,  and  whom  we  may  call  the 
lobbyists  of  the  twentieth  century?"  I  inquired.  "In 
the  present  day,  men  do  not  accumulate  fortunes." 

"Indeed,  they  do  not",  answered  Mr.  Forest  with  a 
smile.  "But  some  people  desire  to  have  occasionally 
a  "high  time"  and  to  spend  five  or  ten  times  the 
amount  of  their  credit-card  during  each  year.  Some 
of  our  administration  leaders  keep,  what  we  may 
style,  a  "great  house".  They  receive  guests  and  en- 
tertain them  with  delicacies  and  wine.  Some  of  the 
most  prominent  lobbyists  do  the  same  thing.  An 
applicant  for  favors  has  to  give  up  a  part  or  perhaps 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  SS 

nearly  all  of  his  credit-card,  and  he  may  look    to  his 
future  subordinates  for  a  rich  compensation". 

"But  why  are  people  not  satisfied  with  their  legiti- 
mate income'?  I  asked,  painfully  surprised  to  see  that 
wire-pulling  and  corruption  were  quite  as  prevalent 
as  they  had  been  113  years  ago.  "Is  not  the  income  a 
credit-card  affords  sufficient  to  support  people?" 

"You   can  never   satisfy  the  people".  Forest  said. 
"Nowadays    the   clever   and    industrious   part  of  the 
people   feel   that  they  are  robbed   for  the  benefit  of 
their    lazy,   awkward   or   stupid    comrades,   that  they 
have  to  submit  to  the  impudence  and  blackmailing  of 
some  of  their  superiors,  or  else  undergo   humiliating 
treatment.      And  even  the   men   and   women  of  the 
lowest  ability,  who  are  benefited  by  our  present  system, 
are   not  all   of  them   pleased.     Some  of  them  would 
rather   do  away  with  personal  property  and  separate 
housekeeping.     In  fact,  but  a  very  small  portion  of 
our  citizens   are  really  satisfied.  —  And  people  who 
are  fond  of  good  cooking,  costly  meals   and    Havana 
cigars,    certainly  cannot  pay  for  such    luxuries,  and 
have   to   depend   upon  others  if  they  desire  to  enjoy 
them.     We   have   in  Washington,  also,  a  great  many 
young  women,  who  prefer  flirtation,  fine  meals  and  a 
fast  life  to  the  regular  employment  in  the  industrial 
army  or  the  life  of  an  ordinary  good  wife". 

"Then  prostitution  still  flourishes  in  Washington", 
I  exclaimed  with  amazement. 

"Indeed  it  does",  Mr.  Forest  assented.     "Of  course, 
these  girls  hold  clerical  positions  in  the  different  de- 


^6  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

partments,  but  these  positions  are  sinecures.  I  un- 
derstand from  friends  who  have  seen  part  of  the  secret 
life  at  the  capitol,  (and  it  is  not  so  very  secret  either) 
that  some  of  the  higher  officials  spend  fifty  times  the 
amount  of  their  credit  cards  with  these  women.  A 
part  of  their  income  is  obtained  from  those  seeking 
favors,  who  willy-nilly  give  up  a  part  of  their  credit 
cards.  Another  part  of  the  values  squandered  by  in- 
fluential persons,  comes  from  the  public  storehouse, 
where  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  value  taken  out 
by  the  influential  people,  is  pricked  from  their  credit 
cards  by  the  clerks,  who  are  fully  aware  what  is  ex- 
pected of  them,  if  they  desire  to  retain  their  positions; 
for  if  they  should  treat  the  leaders  of  the  ruling  party 
like  common  laborers,  they  would  be  degraded  to 
class  B  of  their  third  grade.  The  glitter  of  corruption 
proves  attractive  to  many  men  and  women,  as  1 
have  stated  before,  and  the  population  of  Washington, 
therefore,  exceeds  that  of  any  other  city  on  the  Ame- 
rican continent." 

"But,  I  cannot  understand,  why  the  people  tolerate 
such  a  corrupt  and  tyrannical  government  as  you 
describe,"  I  said,  "and  I  am  satisfied  that  your 
hypochondriac  disposition  is  befogging  somewhat  the 
keenness  of  your  eyesight  and  the  clearness  of  your 
judgment." 

"It  is  your  own  fault  if  you  remain  in  doubt  as  to 
the  perfect  correctness  of  my  statements",  Mr.  Forest 
said.  "If  you,  for  instance,  should  desire  to  take  a 
vacation    for    the   purpose    of   giving    our    rulers    in 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  57 

Washington  one  of  your  enthusiastic  lectures,  you 
will  cheerfully  be  granted  leave  of  absence  from  your 
duties  as  professor  and  will  be  received  at  the  capitol 
in  grand  style.  For  the  enthusiasm  displayed  by  ycu 
for  our  institutions,  as  compared  with  the  civilization 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  will  pour  water  on  the  mill 
wheels  of  our  administration.  You  will  find  the  state 
of  affairs  precisely  as  I  have  described  them  to  be, 
and  by  conversing  with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  sup- 
porters of  the.  administration,  you  will  find  that  they 
are  upholding  the  present  state  for  the  reason  that  they 
despair  of  their  ability  to  improve  public  affairs,  and 
because  they  are  afraid  of  a  rule  still  worse,  under  the 
radicals". 

"How  could  a  state  of  public  affairs  be  worse  than 
the  one  you  have  pictured  to  me  in  your  conversa- 
tions", I  exclaimed. 

''Many  people  are  afraid  that  the  Radicals  would 
prohibit  marriages  and  would  force  free  love  with 
all  its  consequences  upon  the  people.  In  fact,  the 
radical  newspapers  -  the  only  sheets  that  speak  out 
boldly  against  the  administration  and  strike  from  the 
shoulder  —  are  denouncing  religion,  marriage,  sepa- 
rate house-keeping  and  the  limited  amount  of  proper- 
ty people  are  permitted  to  own". 

"But,  how  can  the  tone  of  the  Radical  press  be 
reconciled  with  your  statement  that  the  administra- 
tion is  treating  its  opponents  so  badly"?  I  asked. 
"If  it  is  the  custom  of  the  government  to  confine  its 
opponents  in   insane   asylums,  why   are    the   Radical 


58  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

newspapers  permitted  to  advocate  such  abominable 
prmciples"? 

Mr.  Forest  laughed  and  replied  :  "The  Radical 
editors  are  favored  exceptions.  They  are  doing 
good  service  for  the  administration  in  scaring  the 
mass  of  the  people  into  submission.  Whenever  an 
election  of  generals  of  the  guilds  is  near  at  hand,  the 
Radical  press  is  permitted  to  howl  to  the  best  ability 
of  its  editors.  Then,  a  few  days  before  the  election, 
the  administration  organs  copy  extracts  from  the 
rabid  and  nonsensical  utterances  of  such  papers, 
and  ask  the  people,  if  they  desire  that  kind  of  gov- 
ernment, urge  the  voters  to  stand  by  the  administra- 
tion which  can,  of  course,  not  please  everybody  in  all 
points,  but  which  is  the  best  any  people  on  earth 
ever  had,  and  so  forth  ad  infinitum". 

"Then  the  Radical  editors  are  simply  tolerated  as 
bugbears,  while  the  more  moderate  writers  are  not 
permitted  to  oppose  the  administration?" 

"Exactly",  rejoined  Mr.  Forest.  "But  I  am  afraid, 
the  government  is  playing  a  very  dangerous  game. 
The  Radicals  are  undoubtedly  gaining  ground  and 
have  amongst  their  followers  very  desperate  men, 
who  may  at  any  time  raise  the  black  flag  of  destruc- 
tion. If  we  had  a  free  and  independent  people,  the 
danger  would  not  be  so  great.  Then  the  masses  of 
free  men  would  rally  to  the  defence  of  their  beloved 
institutions.  But  as  matters  now  stand,  the  masses 
are  accustomed  to  submission  under  a  rule  of  a 
minority,  and  the   determined  uprising  of  a  body  of 


LOOKING   FORWARD.  59 

desperate  men  would  find  but  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  citizens  ready  to  fight  for  the  present 
order  of  things.  And  it  will  be  a  bad  day  for  human- 
ity, when  the  Radicals  come  into  power". 

"But,  you  said  that  about  twelve  years  ago  the 
government  lost  an  election.  That  shows,  that  it 
can  be  beaten  in  a  square  fight,  and  you  further  said 
that  the  present  rulers  are  better  citizens  than  the 
men  that  formed  the  last  administration". 

"There  is  certainly  some  improvement,  but  it  is 
nothing  very  remarkable.  It  amounted,  in  substance, 
to  a  change  of  men,  but  not  to  a  change  of  system. 
Favoritism,  corruption  and  prostitution  have  de- 
creased somewhat,  but  they  have  not  been  stamped 
out.  They  still  flourish.  People  who  were  very 
enthusiastic  at  the  time  of  the  election  and  hoped  for 
a  clean  and  popular  administration,  have  now  lost 
all  confidence,  that  under  the  communistic  rule  there 
can  be  such  a  thing  as  a  just  government.  In  sub- 
stance, it  has  been,  as  I  said,  merely  a  change  of  per- 
sonalities and,  therefore,  the  confidence  of  the  people 
in  the  prevailing  system  has  been  destroyed.  Conse- 
quently, the  change  has  actually  done  more  harm 
than  good.  The  strongest  and  most  reliable  element 
to-day  in  favor  of  good  government  is  the  farming 
population ;  but  although  the  farmers  are  very 
numerous,  they  represent  one  guild  only.  They  have 
but  one  general  and  one  department  chief,  and  are 
outvoted  by  the  representatives  of  the  other  guilds. 
And  on  account  of  the   opposition  of  the  farmers  to 


6o  LOOKING    FORWARD. 

the  administration  they  are  not  treated  as  well  as  the 
members  of  the  other  guilds". 

"Do  they  not  receive  the  same  credit  cards  as 
other  people"  ?     I  queried. 

*'They  do,  but  they  complain  that  they  receive  the 
poorest  goods,  and  that  their  share  of  public  im- 
provements and  benefits  is  comparatively  small;  and 
whenever  there  is  a  chance  to  discriminate  against 
their  representatives,  that  chance  is  not  lost.  The 
farmers  would  be  the  most  reliable  opponents  to  the 
Radicals,  but  the  treatment  they  are  receiving  from 
the  administration,  has  created  so  much  dissatisfac- 
tion amongst  the  farming  population,  that  we  cannot 
count  upon  them  in  a  fight  for  the  maintainance  of 
the  present  system  or  the  present  government.  To 
give  you  an  instance  of  the  discrimination  against 
the  farmers,  I  will  mention  the  erection  of  music 
halls,  theatres  and  other  places  of  evolution,  recrea- 
tion and  amusement.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to 
build  a  theatre  or  a  concert  hall  at  every  country 
crossroad,  but  the  number  of  such  public  places 
erected  in  the  cities  is  entirely  out  of  proportion  to 
those  erected  in  the  country  towns  and  villages  The 
administration  relies  for  its  support  upon  the  city 
people,  upon  such  guilds  as  are  recruited  from  the 
population  of  the  cities,  and,  therefore  bends  all  its 
energies  to  benefitting  them.  Then  there  is  another 
thing  to  be  taken  into  account.  The  nation  is  fre- 
quently left  with  small  lots  of  goods  on  its  hands, 
through  changes  of  taste,  unseasonable  weather  and 


LOOKING   FORWARD.  .  61 

various  other  causes.  These  have  to  be  disposed  of 
at  a  sacrifice,  and  the  loss  charged  up  to  the  expenses 
of  the  business*).  These  goods  the  administration 
can  dispose  of  at  any  time  when  it  chooses  to  claim 
that  the  best  prices  can  be  realized.  The  members 
of  the  administration  are  also  judges  as  to  what 
goods  are  to  be  sold  at  a  sacrifice.  It  has  been 
charged  by  the  representatives  of  the  farming  popu- 
lation that  such  of  these  goods  as  are  of  poor  quality 
are  largely  given  out  to  farmers,  while  other  things 
that  are  in  first-class  condition  are  disposed  of  in  the 
storehouses  of  the  cities,  at  reduced  prices,  and  that 
in  such  instances  favoritism  and  corruption  are  com- 
ing in.  I  do  not  care  to  endorse  all  the  complaints, 
our  farmers  make.  They  may  lack  foundation  to  a 
great  extent,  but  they  prove  the  existence  of  a  deep 
dissatisfaction,  and  such  charges  could  simply  not  be 
made  if  our  administration  were  not  clothed  with 
power  hitherto  unheard  of  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
It  is  the  system  itself  that  breeds  all  these  evils". 

"Have  you  not,  besides  the  radical  and  the  admin- 
istration parties,  other  organizations  fighting  for  the 
control  of  the  government"  ? 

''We  have  the  temperance  people  who  have  organ- 
ized themselves ,  but  they  are  simply  striving  within 
the  administration  party  to  secure  the  control  of  the 
government.  The  administration  does  not  discrimi- 
nate against  the   members   of   this   organization.     It 

*;  Page   1S6 


62  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

gives  them  a   chance  to  do  their  very  best,  but  so  far 
they  have  not  succeeded  in  making  much   headway". 

"I  notice  that  you  are  not  giving  the  present  sys- 
tem of  society  much  credit  for  anything  done  under 
its  auspices.  Don't  you  think  that  the  abolition 
of  absokite  poverty,  the  elevation  of  all  men  and 
women  to  a  standard  at  least  nearly  equal,  is  a  great 
and  priceless  gain  to  humanity?  I  remember  too 
well  the  inexpressible  sufferings  of  some  of  the  poor 
people  of  my  days,  and  while  I  am  not  sufficiently 
familiar  with  the  present  state  of  society,  to  endorse 
or  to  contradict  your  statements,  yet  I  prize  the 
abolishment  of  poverty  so  high,  that  I  still  cling  to 
the  hope,  in  spite  of  your  arguments  to  the  contrary, 
that  the  present  form  of  society  and  of  production 
may  overcome  all  the  difficulties  inseparable  from  all 
human  efforts  and   institutions". 

"My  dear  Mr.  West,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  using 
now  in  your  last  remarks  in  defense  of  communism 
the  same  arguments  the  defenders  of  the  old  form  of 
production  used  against  the  communists  of  your  days. 
This  simply  proves  two  facts,  viz.:  that  nothing  is  per- 
fect under  God's  sun,  and  that  every  form  of  govern- 
ment is  forced  to  admit  this.  The  abolition  of  abso- 
lute poverty  could  have  been  accomplish'ed  as  I  can 
and  will  prove  later  on,  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt, 
without  a  descent  into  communism  and  the  terrible 
consequences  of  this  worst  system  of  production. 
The  fact,  that  the  members  and  the  officers  of  the 
administration  may,  at  their  pleasure,  treat  the  friends 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  67, 

of  their  opponents,  members  of  the  industrial  army, 
like  slaves  ;  that  even  the  friends  of  the  government's 
opponents  who  have  gained  comparatively  good  posi- 
tions, can  be  placed  in  the  second  class  of  the  third 
grade  at  the  yearly  regradings,  and  that  favoritism  is 
shown  to  all  friends  of  the  administration,  has  caused 
adulation,  servility,  calumny  and  corruption,  and 
there  was  never  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  Saxon 
race  when  there  were  in  public  business  and  social 
life  so  little  independence  and  manhood  among  the 
citizens.  When  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago 
England  tried  to  levy  a  tax  upon  tea,  the  Americans 
rose  up  in  arms,  because  they  would  not  permit  the 
government  to  collect  a  tax  unless  it  granted  to  the 
Americans  representation  in  the  parliament  which 
imposed  this  tax.  To-day  the  government  controls 
the  labor  of  all  men  and  women  for  twentv-four  lons^ 
years,  without  giving  the  flower  of  the  American  peo- 
ple a  chance  to  cast  a  vote,  which  shall  shape  the 
form  and  policy  of  the  government  in  conformity  with 
the  wishes  of  those  who  produce  the  wealth  of  the 
nation.  This  state  of  slavery  which  never  existed 
before  in  the  history  of, civilized  nations,  can  not  last 
many  years  longer.  It  will  go  down  in  an  ocean  of 
blood.  For  as  the  German  poet  Schiller  says:  Fear 
not  outrages  from  free  men  ;  but  tremble  when  slaves 
break  their  chains". 


CHAPTER    V. 

From  a  heaven  of  peace  and  joy,  from  an  ideal 
state  inhabited  by  good  people  only,  Forest  had 
thrown  me  into  a  deep   dark   sea  of   pity   and  doubt. 

Dr.  Leete  and  his  family  noticed,  of  course,  the 
disturbed  state  of  my  thoughts,  and  while  the  doctor 
was  evidently  waiting  for  me  to  bring  about  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  social  problems,  Edith  was  anxious  to 
console  me.  She  seemed  to  think  that  the  strange- 
ness of  my  surroundings  and  of  my  present  position 
was  depressing  me. 

I  carefully  avoided  an  explanation.  I  had  resolved 
to  continue  the  conversations  with  Mr.  Forest,  but 
to  form  a  clear  opinion  of  my  own  by  examining  into 
the  actual  state  of  things,  and  thus  find  if  the  real 
facts  bore  out  the  statements  of  Dr.  Leete  or  those  of 
Mr.  Forest.  Therefore  on  my  way  to  and  from  the 
college  I  strolled  along  the  streets  and  conversed  with 
all  the  people  I  met.  I  noticed  with  some  surprise 
that  everybody  was  reserved,  yes  even  shy,  when  I 
commenced  to  ask  about  the  administration  of  public 
affairs,  about  the  principles  underlying  our  form  of 
government,  about  the  behavior  of  the  officers,  the 
management  of  the  storehouses,  and  whether  the  peo- 
ple were  satisfied  and  pleased,  or  not. 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  65 

Hardly  ever    did    I   meet   an   expression    either  of 
cheerful  contentment,  or  of  decided    dissatisfaction. 
Only  a   few  Radicals  expressed  themselves  in  strong 
language    against    the    present    state    of    things    and 
against  the  leaders  of  the   country,  and  a  few  women 
said  that  they  did  not  like  the  work   in   the  factories 
at  all.     But,   although  people  were   very   reserved  in 
the  expression  of  their  feelings  and  thoughts,  I  became 
convinced  that  contentment  is  as  rare  a   flower  in  the 
garden  of  communism  as  it  was  in  the  United  States 
of  1 13  years  ago.     The  abominable  language  used  by 
the  Radicals  against  the  highest  officers  of  the  coun- 
try could  not,  of  course,  convince  me  that  the  latter 
were  guilty  of  the  charges  preferred.    But  I  could  not 
elicit  from  any  other  man  or  from    any  other  women 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the   industrial  army  a  defense 
of  the  accused  men.       They  evidently  did  not  care  to 
antagonize  anybody  when  they  were  not  called  upon 
by  one  of  their  superiors  to  stand  by   the  administra- 
tion. 

Thus,  I  was  forced  to  the  conclusion,  that  commu- 
nistic rule  did  not  create  the  universal  happiness  I 
expected  to  find  after  my  conversations  with  Dr. 
Leete.  But  I  was  inclined  to  think  that  ])eople  lived 
well  enough,  without  great  cares,  neither  on  the  one 
hand  particularly  content  with  their  lot,  nor  on  the 
other  inclined  to  change  their  system  of  production. 
And  it  seemed  to  me  that  most  of  the  people  were 
rather  dull  and  did  not  take  much  interest  in  any- 
thing.    One  day   when  I  reached  the   house  of  Dr. 


66  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

Leete  after  one  of  my  promenades  through  the  streets 
of  Boston,  as  I  entered  the  hall,  I  heard  a  very  loud 
conversation  in  one  of  the  rooms.  The  first  words 
that  arrested  my  attention,  spoken  in  a  deep  voice, 
trembling  with  emotion,  were:  "Miss  Edith  has  en- 
couraged me  to  repeat  my  visits"- 

"We  are  always  glad  to  see  you  here,  Mr.  Fest", 
Dr.  Leete  replied.      "We  have  all  invited  you." 

"Yes,  you  have  ;  but  you  understand  very  well 
what  I  mean",  the  deep  voice  continued.  "I  have 
called  here  so  frequently  and  have  to-day  asked  Miss 
Edith  to  become  my  wife,  because  your  daughter  has 
encouraged  my  hopes  to  win  her  love.  And  now  I 
am  coolly  informed  that  I  have  made  a  great  mistake, 
and  I  see  my  suspicion  confirmed,  that  this  Bostonian 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  dug  out  by  you  from  his 
grave  in  your  garden,  is  the  man  whom  Miss  Edith 
prefers  to  all  others,  even  the  one  she  encouraged 
until  a  few  days  ago''. 

"Mr.  Fest,  I  wish  you  would  represent  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  twentieth  century  with  more  dignity  when 
you  are  speaking  of  my  daughter  and  of  my  guest", 
said  Dr.   Leete  with  some  emotion  in  his  voice. 

"Of  course,  I  must  preserve  my  dignity  when  I  have 
been  fooled  by  a  base  flirtation  for  over  a  year,  and 
make  the  discovery  that  the  girl  I  love  is  to  marry 
a  man  143  years  old,  in  preference  to  me",  Mr.  Fest 
said  in  deep  bitterness  and  somewhat  sneeringly. 

"How  can  you  utter  such  cruel  and  untrue  words," 
Edith   exclaimed    with    angry    excitement".     "Never 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  67 

has  the  thought  entered  my  mind  that  your  feelings 
toward  me,  your  friend  for  over  ten  years,  were  any- 
thing but  brotherly  affection". 

''It  is  time  to  end  this  conversation",  interposed 
Dr.  Leete,  "after  the  explanations  given,  Mr.  Fest 
undoubtedly  feels,  that  our  relations  can  not  be  con- 
tinued". 

"Of  course,  our  relations  can  not  be  continued", 
cried  Mr.  Fest  in  a  rage.  "I  leave  you  now,  and  give 
you,  now  and  here,  fair  warning  that  I  shall  not  enter 
your  house  again  as  a  friend.  If  I  ever  come  again, 
it  will  be  as  an  enemy  to  be  avenged  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  my  happiness  and  the  peace  of  my  heart.  Be- 
ware of  that  day"! 

The  reckless  manner  in  which  this  man  addressed 
Edith  and  her  father  aroused  my  anger,  and,  entering 
the  room  I  said  ;  "Please  save  your  cheap  pathos  for 
amateur  theatricals  and  leave  this  room  at  once". 

The  man  before  me  was  about  six  feet  and  three 
inches  tall,  with  broad  shoulders  and  two  heavy  fists. 
He  looked  down  upon  me  with  an  ironical  glance 
and  said  :  "I  will  spare  you  this  time,  old  man,  but 
the  next  occasion  that  you  indulge  in  impudent  lan- 
guage, I  will  put  you  in  a  bag  and  dump  you  into 
Massachusetts  Bay" . 

Before  I  could  answer  this  pleasing  threat,  Mr.  Fest 
had  left  the  room  and  the  house. 

"Who  is  this  man  ?  "  I  asked,  turning  to  Dr.  Leete, 
with  no  attempt  to  conceal  my  displeasure. 


68  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

"He  is  a  machinist,  a  very  able  man  in  his  trade 
and  a  captain  in  the  industrial  army",  explained  the 
doctor.  "His  parents  lived  next  door  and  when  he 
was  a  boy,  he  used  to  play  with  Edith". 

"If  [  were  to  judge  the  social  manners  of  the  offi- 
cers of  the  industrial  army,  by  the  experience  of  this 
hour,  I  should  have  to  say  that  civilization  has  moved 
very  slowly  and  rather  backward  than  ahead",  I 
remarked. 

"It  is  an  extraordinary  case  of  atavism",  said  Dr. 
Leete.  "Such  hotheadedness  is  very  rare  in  our 
days". 

I  did  not  c^re  to  begin  just  now,  a  conversation 
that  might  have  a  very  unpleasant  termination.  But  I 
could  not  repress  the  thought  that  113  years  ago  the 
manners  and  morals  were  such,  that  lines  were  drawn 
between  the  two  sexes  that  were  invisible  but  still 
recognized  by  every  one  having  a  little  sense  of  pro- 
priety, and  that  a  man  would  hardly  have  felt  as  if  he 
had  been  encouraged,  if  it  were  not  the  case.  I  en- 
tertained not  the  slightest  doubt  that  Edith  had 
behaved  as  well  as  any  girl  of  her  time.  It  was  the 
consequence  of  the  tendency  to  equalize  everything 
that  had,  perhaps,  effaced  to  a  certain  degree  the  fine 
lines  existing  113  years  ago  between  good  women  and 
men.  I  remembered  my  question  put  to  Dr.  Leete: 
"And  so  the  girls  of  the  twentieth  century  tell  their 
love"?  and  the  doctor's  answer:  ''If  they  choose. 
There  is  no  more  pretense  of   a  concealment  of  feel- 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  69 

ing  on  their  part  than  on  the  part  of  their  lovers".*) 
— Yes,  if  girls  tell  their  love  just  as  men  do,  then  the 
fine  lines  between  the  two  sexes  must  be  obliterated, 
and  a  feeling  of  repulsion  and  uneasiness  took  poses- 
sion  of  me. 

"It  may  become  necessary  to  place  Mr.  Fest,  at 
least  for  a  few  months,  under  medical  treatment", 
remarked  Dr.  Leete  thoughtfully.  ''He  is  certainly  in 
a  high  state  of  excitement,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
he  may  commit  a  rash  act  which  he  would  repent 
afterwards". 

"One  hundred  and  thirteen  years  ago  we  would  have 
placed  such  a  man  under  bonds  to  keep  the  peace," 
1  said,  considering  with  terror  the  idea,  that  a  man 
could  be  placed  in  an  insane  asylum  for  uttering  a 
few  rash  words. 

"And  if,  in  violation  of  his  bond,  he  committed  a 
breach  of  the  peace",  said  the  doctor,  "what  did  you 
then  do  with  such  a  man"  ? 

"We  punished  him  according  to  the  laws  covering 
the  case,  either  by  imprisonment  or  by  a  fine,  or  in 
cases  of  murder,  by  putting  the  criminals   to  death" . 

"We  place  a  man  in  whom  atavism  makes  its  ap- 
pearance, in  a  hospital  where  competent  physicians 
take  care  of  him  until  they  consider  him  sufficiently 
cured  to  be  released",  said  Dr.  Leete,  with  an  ex- 
pression of  great  satisfaction  and  kindness,  as  he 
lighted  a  fresh  havana  cigar. 

"I  think  you  are  running  no  great  risk,  papa,  if  you 
allow  that  man  to  attend   to   the   duties   of   his   posi- 
*)  Page  266. 


70  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

tion",   Edith  remarked.     "He  is  quick  tempered  and 
hot  headed  ;  but  he  will  soon  become  composed" 

"I  am  not  so  sure  about  that",  Dr.  Leete  said 
slowly.  ''I  remember  that  he  has  always  shown  deep 
strong  feelings  whenever  he  had  set  his  heart  upon 
anything.  He  may,  and  he  may  not,  calm  down.  It 
is  dangerous  to  take    any  chances  with  such  a  man". 

Conflicting  sentiments  and  ideas  filled  my  heart 
and  head.  I  felt  that  if  I  continued  the  conversa- 
tion it  might  end  in  a  conflict  with  Dr.  Leete,  and  I 
was  in  no  mood  to  engage  in  any  discussion  with  him. 
So  I  excused  myself  on  the  plea  of  a  bad  head  ache, 
and  left  the  house  to  take  a  walk. 

The  experience  of  the  last  hour  did  not  savor  much 
of  the  millennium.  Here  was  a  man  holding  the 
rank  of  an  officer  of  the  industrial  army,  and  roughly 
and  rudely  accusing  Edith  of  flirtation.  His  behavior 
certainly  did  not  correspond  with  the  high  praise  Dr. 
Leete  gave  to  the  culture  and  education  of  the  young 
people  of  the  twentieth  century.  At  all  events  this 
conflict  between  Fest  and  the  family  of  Dr.  Leete 
demonstrated  that  contentment  is  not  secured  to 
humanity  by  the  simple  introduction  of  communism, 
by  securing  for  everybody  lodging,  clothing  and 
a  suflicient  quantity  of  good  food.  Envy  and  jealousy 
threatened  our  love,  and  Mr.  Fest  seemed  to  be  just 
the  kind  of  a  man  to  make  his  displeasure  felt.  The 
manner  in  which  Dr.  Leete  proposed  to  prevent  a 
rash  act  of  the  enraged  lover  appeared  to  me  even 
more  disagreeable  than  the  prospect  of  a   personal 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  71 

encounter  with  Mr.  Fest.  And  again  the  question 
arose  before  my  mind  whether  Edith  Bartlett,  my 
fiancee  of  1887  would  ever  have  given  a  man  an 
opportunity  to  accuse  her  of  flirtation  or  to  assert 
that  she  had  encouraged  him  to  declare  his  love. 

When  I  met  Mr.  Forest  after  my  next  lecture  I 
remarked:  ''I  understand  the  girls  of  the  twentieth 
century  are  somewhat  of  the  style  that  we  would  have 
called  emancipated". 

With  a  short  but    sharp    glance    at   my  pale  face 
which  testified  that  I   had  passed   a   sleepless    night, 
Mr.  Forest  replied:   "The  mad    endeavor  to  equalize 
the  variety,  established  by  nature,  has  not  spared  the 
relations  between  women  and   men.     Both  sexes   be- 
long to   the   industrial   army,   both    have   their   own 
officers  and  judges,  both  receive  the  same  pay.     The 
queen  of  your  old-fashioned  household  has  been  de- 
throned.    We  take  our  meals  in  great  steam- feeding 
establishments,  and  if  our  Radicals,  who   are  in  fact 
the  logical   communists,    are  victorious,  we  will  all 
live  together  in  lodging  houses  accommodating  thou- 
sands of  people.   Marriage  will  be  abolished,  together 
with  religion   and    all    personal   property  ;  free    love 
will  be  proclaimed  and  we  will  live   together  like  a 
flock  of    rabbits.      The    natural    sense    of   propriety 
which  is   a  distinguishing   quality    of    the    finer  sex, 
fortunately  prevents   most   of   our  women    and  girls 
becoming  victims  of  the  low  and  degrading  theories 
of  communism.     But  the  real  girl  of   our  period  is  a 
very    remarkable    although  by    no    means    agreeable 


72  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

specimen.  Do  you  know  Miss  Cora  Belong,  a  cousin 
of  Miss  Edith  Leete"? 

"I  have  not  the  pleasure" 

"You  will  not  escape  her",  Mr.  Forest  predicted 
with  a  smile  of  amusement.  "Miss  Cora  is  very  en- 
thusiastic over  the  absolute  equality  of  women  and 
men.  And  since  some  of  our  young  men  are  courting 
their  young  lady  friends.  Miss  Cora  thinks  it  but  fair 
and  proper  that  she  should  court  some  of  the  young 
men.  She  does  not  hesitate  to  tell  them  that  she  ad- 
mires their  good  looks,  that  she  loves  them  ;  she 
asks  them  for  kisses,  invites  them  to  a  drink — just  as 
young  men  talk  to  young  girls  and  just  as  they  invite 
them  to  have  a  plate  of  ice  cream. —  She  smokes  cigars 
and  plays  billiards  with  her  male  friends,  and  is  domg 
all  she  can  to  "equalize"  the  sexes.  And  Miss  Cora 
as  well  as  the  other  "girls  of  our  period"   complains 

very  loudly  that  she  cannot  abolish  all  the  differences 
between  woman  and  man". 

"I  am  not  very  anxious  to  make  the  acquaintance 
of  Miss  Cora  Belong",  I  confessed.  "And  I  agree 
with  you  from  my  own  personal  experience  that  the 
old  style  of  housekeepmg  is  very  agreeable.  I  would 
prefer  it.  But  do  not  the  women  of  the  twentieth 
century  lead  a  more  comfortable  life  than  even  the 
wealthy  ladies  of  my  former  days  ?  And  are  you  not 
getting  more  toil  out  of  the  wt)men  than  we  did  ? 
Br.  Leete  says  you  are"*). 

"Br.  Leete  is  a  great  optimist  whenever  communism 
is  discussed",  answered  Mr.  Forest.  "It  is,  of  course, 
*)  Page  266. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  73 

impossible  to  state  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  how 
much  the  girls  and  women  of  the  year  1887  produced. 
But  I  doubt  very  much  the  statement  of  your  host 
that  we  are  getting  a  great  deal  more  toil  out  of  our 
women  than  you  did^'. 

"The  separate  cooking,  washing  and  ironing  at  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  must  have  caused  a 
great  deal  more  work  than  the  present  way  of  doing 
these  things",  I  remarked.  ''And  Dr.  Leete  said  : 
There  is   no   housework  to  be  done"*). 

"This  is  one  of  the  many  wild  statements  of  Dr. 
Leete",  Mr.  Forest  answered.  "Who  is  sweeping  the 
rooms,  making  the  beds,  cleaning  the  windows,  dust- 
ing the  furniture,  scrubbing  the  floors  ?  I  have  no 
doubt  that  Dr.  Leete's  family  is  an  exception,  because 
women  of  the  industrial  army  do  a  great  deal,  if  not 
all,  this  work  in  the  house  of  the  leader  of  the  admin- 
istration party.  Have  you  ever  seen  Mrs.  Leete  or 
Miss  Edith  doing  any  housework  of  the  kind  I  have 
mentioned"  ? 

I  had  to  confess  that  I  never  had,  and,  indeed. 
Miss  Edith  had  never  done  anything  except  arrange 
a  bunch  of  flowers.  If  she  were  a  member  of  the  in- 
dustrial army,  it  must  be  in  a  capacity,  where  there 
was  but  very  little  work  to  do.  She  had  never  men- 
tioned that  she  had  duties  to  |)erform,  and  I  remem- 
bered that  Dr.  Leete  had  once  spoken  of  his  daughter 
as  an  indefatigable  shopper**),  thus  indicating  that 
she  had  much  spare  time. 
*)  Page  118. 
**)   Page  99. 


74  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

"In  the  houses  occupied  by  the  rank  and  file  of  our 
industrial  army  the  women  have  no  help  from  other 
members  of  the  auxiliary  corps  (the  women  of  the 
industrial  army).  These  women  have  to  do  all  the 
work  I  have  mentioned,  and  for  them  the  cooking  in 
the  public  eating  houses  is  not  such  a  great  help  as 
Dr.  Leete  seems  to  believe",  began  Mr.  Forest. 
"These  women  have  to  change  their  dresses  three 
times  a  day,  for  they  cannot  appear  at  the  table  in 
the  wrapper  they  wear  while  working  at  home,  and 
they  have  to  wash  and  dress  their  children,  if  they 
have  any.  And  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  by 
having  the  cooking  done  in  the  pubhc  eating  houses, 
a  great  deal  of  material  is  squandered  that  would  be 
saved  in  a  private  house.  Besides,  the  pubhc  cooking 
houses  have  to  prepare  a  large  bill  of  fare,  and  there 
is,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  great  deal  left  over  that 
can  not  be  used  afterwards.  —  Therefore,  the  women 
who  are  members  of  the  industrial  army  find  actually 
very  httle  time  to  do  any  work  besides  the  labor  con- 
nected with  housekeeping,  and  the  majority  of  them 
would  rather  do  the  cooking  at  home.  They 
could  do  it  while  busy  with  their  housework,  without 
losing  more  time  than  the  dressing  and  undressing  for 
breakfast,  dinner  and  supper  consume.  And  the 
complaint  has  frequently  been  made  that  families 
with  many  children  would  fare  much  better,  and  the 
mothers  of  such  families  save  much  time  if  the  cook- 
ing were  done  at  home.  When  there  is  sickness  in 
the  family,  it  is  very  annoying  to  the  healthy  members 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  75 

to  be  obliged  to  go  to  the  eating  houses  to  procure 
proper  fopd  for  the  invalid.  A  Mrs.  Hosmer  said  to 
me  the  other  day,  she  and  her  seven  children  had 
frequently  missed  a  meal,  because  she  could  not  wash 
all  her  little  ones  and  dress  herself  and  the  children 
in  time". 

*'Ho\v  do  yon  employ  the  married  women"?  I 
asked. 

"This  is  a  very  weak  point  in  our  social  system", 
Mr.  Forest  replied.  ''Most  of  the  married  women  do 
not  at  all  relish  doing  outside  work,  and  they  make  all 
kinds  of  excuses  to  avoid  it.  Trouble  with  their 
children  and  personal  indisposition  are  frequently 
used  as  excuses  for  the  absence  of  married  women 
from  their  positions  in  the  industrial  army". 

''I  suppose  it  is  very  difficult,  even  for  the  physi- 
cians, to  ascertain  whether  such  statements  are  well 
founded  or  not",    I  remarked. 

"Of  course,  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  impossible 
to  make  the  charge  of  shamming  and  prove  it",  Mr. 
Forest  continued.  "It  is  this  trouble  with  the  mar- 
ried women,  and  their  excuses  that  their  small  children 
})revent  them  doing  any  duty  in  the  industrial  army, 
that  the  radical  Communists  are  using  in  support  of 
their  demand  for  the  abolition  of  private  housekeep- 
ing. The  Radicals  claim  that  their  system  would  be 
more  prosperous  than  ours.  It  would  be  much 
cheaper  to  lodge -hundreds  or  thousands  under  one 
roof,  than  to  have  houses  for  one,  two  or  three  fam- 
ilies.    They  furthermore  claim  that  if  marriages  were 


76  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

abolished  and  free  love  introduced  as  the  principle 
governing  the  relations  of  the  two  sexes,  the  passing 
alliances  of  men  and  women  would  produce  better 
children  than  the  offspring  of  the  present  marriages. 
These  children  would  be  kept  and  nursed,  after  they 
had  passed  their  first  year,  in  large  nurseries,  so  that 
the  mothers  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them  and 
could  attend  all  day  to  their  work  as  members  of  the 
industrial  army". 

"How  beastly  are  these  theories"!  I  exclaimed. 
"To  establish  all  human  institutions,  the  relations  of 
the  sexes,  simply  on  a  basis  of  calculation,  and  to 
separate  the  mothers  from  their  children,  because  it 
is  cheaper  to  raise  two  hundred  mammifers  by  the 
bulk  even  if  the  mortality  should  be  ten  and  twenty 
percent  larger"! 

"But  the  Radicals  are  the  logical  Communists", 
Mr.  Forest  said.  "The  fundamental  principle  of 
communism  is  equality.  You  can  base  the  demand 
for  the  equal  division  of  the  products  of  labor  on  that 
princii)le  of  equality  only,  and  if  we  are  all  equal, 
then  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  live  in  houses 
of  different  architecture,  why  we  should  wear  different 
clothing,  why  we  should  have  a  variety  of  meals,  why 
one  man  should  not  have  just  as  good  a  right  to  the 
love  of  a  certain  girl  as  any  and  all  other  men,  and 
why  one  girl  should  not  have  just  as  fair  a  claim  to 
the  love  of  any  man  she  may  select  as  any  other  girl 
has.  And  there  is  no  reason,  why  one  baby  should 
have  more  care   than   another  and    why   one   mother 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  77 

should  spend  more  time  on  her  child  than  another, 
thus  perhaps  losing  time  that  would  have  enabled  her 
to  make  herself  useful  by  peeling  a  plate  of  potatoes. 
The  Radicals  are  the  only  Communists". 

"But  every  girl  can  not  love  all  the  men,  and  every 
man  can  not  very  well  love  all  the  girls",  I  objected, 
somewhat  amused  by  the  grim  humor  displayed  by 
Mr.  Forest,  although  my  deep  disgust  for  the  abom- 
inable brutality  preached  by  the  Radicals,  prevented 
real  merriment. 

"Our  radical  reformers  have  never  been  able  to 
explain  to  my  entire  satisfaction  how  the  principle  of 
free  love  should  be  regulated,  if  regulated  at  all",  Mr. 
Forest  answered.  "Some  of  them  seem  disposed  to 
grant  permission  to  live  together,  so  long  as  both 
parties  like  each  other.  But  the  more  radical  and 
logical  communists  object  to  the  stability  of  an  insti- 
tution as  incongruous  with  the  spirit  of  institutions 
based  on  the  principle  of  absolute  equality.  Perhaps 
they  favor  the  choosing  of  a  new  partner  every  day, 
and  in  order  to  place  both  sexes  on  equal  footing 
they  would  give  the  right  of  choice  to  the  women  on 
Mondays,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  to  the  men 
on  the  other  three  week- days,  leaving  the  Sundays  in 
addition  to  the  ladies.  And  to  avoid  strife,  when  a 
number  of  reformers  demand  the  love  of  the  same 
girl,  or  when  more  girls  than  one  fall  in  love  with  the 


78  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

same  man,  they  could  draw  lots  or  could  raffle  for  the 
first  chance,  thus  doing  justice  to  all"*). 

"It  is  inconceivable",  I  said,  "that  men,  proudly 
considering  themselves  the  crown  of  creation,  or  if 
they  do  not  believe  in  God,  at  least  considering  them- 
selves intellectual  free-thinkers,  can  breed  in  their 
brains  such  horrid  theories.  I  should  deplore  the 
fate  of  womanhood  if  these  theories  should  ever  be- 
come victorious,  if  free  love  in  this  damnable  form 
should  ever  be  proclaimed  ;  or  if  the  nursing  and 
education  of  children  should  be  taken  away  from  the 
mothers  and  entrusted  to  others". 

"I  should  consider  it  the  most  terrible  blow  ever 
aimed  at  humanity  if  the  nursmg  and  the  first  educa- 
tion of  the  young  children  should  be  transferred  from 
their  mothers  to  other  persons  No  women  or  men, 
however  good  and  noble  they  may  be,  can  feel  the 
love  and  the  patience  for  a  child  that  fills  a  mother's 
heart.  The  ties  that  bind  women  and  men  together, 
marriage  and  the  family,  are  institutions  which  eveu 
our  communistic  Solons  have  so  far  respected.  Hu-_ 
manity  is  doomed  to  barbarism  on  the  day  family  life 
is  broken  up,  when  mothers  are  separated  from  their 

*)  The  well  known  naturalist,  Professor  Karl  Vogt  in  Germany, 
famous  by  his  nickname  "Monkey-Vogt,''  is  a  radical  philosopher, 
who  gained  this  sobriquet  as  an  advocate  of  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, claiming  Monkeys  to  have  the  same  progenitors  as  man.  But 
even  Vogt's  radicalism  revolted  against  the  doctrines  set  forth  by 
Russian,  French  and  German  nihilists  and  anarchists,  during  a 
"convention"  held  in  Switzerland,  Karl  Vogt  dedicated  the 
following  lines  to  them: 

"Wir  wollen  in  der  Sonn'  spazieren, 
Wir  wollen  uns  mit  Fett  beschmieren 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  79 

children,  when  men  are  alienated  from  the  constantly- 
elevating  influence  of  good  women,  when  the  rela- 
tions of  men  and  women  are  stripped  of  that  sublim- 
ity conferred  upon  matrimonial  life  by  the  permanent 
exchange  of  feelings  and  thoughts,  when  these  rela- 
tions are  degraded  to  nothing  but  sexual  intercourse. 
Nearly  all  our  good  qualities  can  be  traced  back  to 
the  influence  the  unfathomable  love  and  patience  of 
the  mother,  in  her  efforts  to  make  her  beloved  child 
good  and  true,  have  exercised  upon  our  minds  and 
hearts.  Nearly  all  great  men  had  good  mothers. 
There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  could  compensate  a 
child  for  the  loss  of  its  mother,  or  that  could  indem- 
nify humanity  for  the  loss  of  the  beneficial  influence 
mothers  have  on  the  growing  generation". 

"Do  you  suppose  that  your  Radicals  will  ever  have 
power  enough  to  dethrone  the  mothers  and  to  abol- 
ish matrimonial  life"?  I  asked,  with  great  curiosity. 

Mr.  Forest's  reply  to  this  question  sounded  very 
cheerful  and  confident,  more  so  than  anything  he 
had  thus  far  uttered  in  my  presence. 


Und  ausgeloscht  sei  Mein  unci  Dein. 
Wir  wollen  uns  mit  Schnapps  berauschen, 
Wir  wollen  uns're  Weiber  tauschen, 
Wir  wollen  freie  Manner  sein!" 

A  free  translation  of  which  reads: 

We  will  walk  in  the  sun,  boys,  with  ease, 
We  will  cover  our  bodies  with  grease, 
tor  poverty  there  is  no  need. 
We'll  all  get  as  drunk  as  a  loon, 
We'll  swap  our  wives  every  noon. 
And  thus  be    inie    freemen  indeed. 


So  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

''The  Radicals  may  rise  and  overthrow  the  present 
government,  they  may  change  many  things",  he  said, 
"and  they  may  not  meet  with  much  resistance,  be- 
cause the  great  mass  of  the  people  simply  tolerate 
the  present  rule,  have  no  love  for  it,  and  will  not  rally 
to  its  defense.  But  the  experience  of  our  Radicals 
will  be  very  unpleasant  if  they  attempt  to  separate 
man  and  wife,  mother  and  child.  Almost  every 
mother  will  fight  like  a  lioness  before  she  will  give  up 
her  children,  and  I  know  one  man  who  does  not  care 
a  straw  for  the  overthrow  of  the  present  government, 
but  who  would  fight  to  his  death  before  he  would 
yield  to  a  separation  from  his  spouse.  For  a  good 
and  loving  wife  always  has  been,  is,  and  always  will 
be  the  greatest  blessing  of  God,  and  no  man  of  honor 
and  courage  will  permit  anybody  to  rob  him  of  her"! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

''Now,  Mr.  Forest",  I  said  when  I  again  met  my 
predecessor  as  professor  of  the  history  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  ''please  tell  me  how  much  is  the 
average  yearly  income  of  every  inhabitant  of  the 
United  States  of  America"? 

"The  average  yearly  income  was  figured  up  to  be 
$204.",  Mr.  Forest   answered. 

'^Two  hundred  and  four  dollars  you  say.  Is  that 
all"?  I  queried  with  astonishment.  "I  expected  from 
the  statements  of  Dr.  Leete  and  his  style  of  living 
that  it  amounted  to  at  least  three  times  that  sum". 

Forest  smiled.  "How  much  was  the  average 
income  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  your 
days"?  he  asked. 

I  was  forced  to  admit  that  I  had  not  the  faintest 
idea. 

"It  was  ^1^165.",  said  Mr.  Forest,  "or  about  twice 
the  average  amount  earned  by  the  people  of  Cxerma- 
ny  or  France". 

I  was  perplexed.  I  had  never  looked  into  the 
statistics  of  national  economy.  I  had  spent  about 
twenty  times  8165.  every  year.  I  remembered  hav- 
ing read  in  the  papers  of  my  time  that  the  average 
yearly  earnings  of  the   working  men,  working  women 


82  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

and  children  were  over  four  hundred  dollars,  and  I 
was  inclined  to  estimate  the  average  yearly  income 
at  about  six  hundred  dollars.  I  stated  this  to  Mr. 
Forest. 

"You  have  left  out  of  your  caltulation  the  women 
and  children  who  were  not  earning  anything,  but 
who  depended  upon  the  income  of  their  husbands, 
fathers  and  brothers",  Mr.  Forest  explained.  "An  in- 
come of  two  hundred  and  four  dollars  for  every  man, 
woman  and  child  would,  therefore,  represent  a  large 
increase,  if  the  figures  were  fairly  given.  But  they 
are  not  correct.  In  order  to  make  the  income  of 
the  nation  appear  greater  than  it  really  is,  the  value 
of  the  various  productions  is  quoted  higher  than  in 
your  days.  Consequently  the  purchasing  power  of 
every  dollar  on  our  credit-cards  is  less  than  that  of 
the  dollar  of  your  time.  I  have  carefully  compared 
the  prices  of  all  the  necessities  and  commodities  as 
they  are  now  and  as  they  were  in  your  time,  and  I 
have  found  an  increase  of  about  95  percent.  The 
real  average  yearly  income  of  all  the  people  of  our 
country  is  about  one  hundred  and  twelve  dollars,  so 
there  is  not  an  increase  of  about  24  percent,  but  a 
decrease  of  about  t,t,  percent". 

"How  do  you  account  for  this  remarkable  state- 
ment"? I  inquired. 

"That  is  a  (question  easier  asked  than  answered", 
replied  Mr.  Forest. 

"I  am  very  curious  to  hear  your  explanation",  I 
remarked.     "Dr.  Leete  has  given  me  so  many  plausi- 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  83 

ble  reasons  for  the  "poverty  resulting  from  our  extra- 
ordinary industrial  system"f)  that  I  was  quite  con- 
vinced of  the  greater  wealth  of  your  people.  He 
mentioned  the  frequent  wrong  speculations  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  insane  competition,  the  peri- 
odical overproductions  and  consequent  crises,  the 
waste  from  idle  capital  and  labor*),  and  he  especially 
dwelt  upon  the  point  that  four  or  five  enterprises 
of  the  nineteenth  century  failed  where  one  suc- 
ceeded"**). 

"Yes,  I  know  Dr.  Leete's  arguments  from  occasion- 
al speeches  he  has  made,  and  from  articles  he  has 
written  for  the  administration  organs",  Mr.  Forest 
responded.  "And  he  has  undoubtedly  mentioned 
many  other  causes  that  crippled  the  production  of 
your  days.  He  has,  or  he  may  have,  pointed  to  the 
expenditures  for  your  army  and  navy,  to  your  custom 
and  revenue  officials,  to  the  tax-assessors  and  collec- 
tors you  employed,  to  the  larger  number  of  judges, 
sheriffs  and  other  officers  you  needed,  to  the  greater 
amount  of  labor  made  necessary  by  domestic  wash- 
ing and  cooking,  to  the  large  number  of  middlemen 
needed  in  handling  goods  before  the  articles  made 
their  way  from  the  factory  to  the  retail  store,  the 
latter  corresponding  to  our  storehouses  And  Dr.  Leete 
has  or  may  have,  mentioned  the  lawyers,  bankers 
and    their    clerks   who    were   nominally    engaged    in 

f)  Page  42. 

*)   Page  229  &  230. 

**)   Page  230. 


84  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

work  that  was  really  not  done,  and  which  has  all  been 
done  away  with  to-day". 

''Indeed",  I  said,  "Dr.  Leete  has  enumerated  most 
of  these  causes  of  the  poverty  of  our  days,  and,  since 
these  evils  have  been  abolished  under  your  system 
of  production,  I  think  it  would  be  simply  a  matter  of 
course  that  the  total  yearly  income  of  your  people 
should  have  increased,  and  I  wonder  that  the  increase 
is  not  even  greater  than  you  have  stated  it  to  be". 

"I  will  not  waste  much  time  in  investigating  all 
these  points  and  ascertaining  how  great  was  the  loss 
thus  inflicted  on  the  production  of  the  nineteenth 
century",  Mr.  Forest  continued.  "But  you  seem  to 
be  inclined  to  overestimate  their  effects.  Unlucky 
speculations,  for  instance,  caused  sometimes  heavy 
losses  to  the  speculator,  but  in  most  cases  they  pro- 
duced values  that  benefitted  others  and  increased  the 
wealth  of  the  nation.  The  "insane  competition" 
made  goods  cheaper,  thereby  stimulating  both  pro- 
duction and  consumption  and  not  harming,  but  on 
the  contrary  to  a  certain  extent  benefitting  humanity. 
The  statement  that  four  or  five  enterprises  failed 
where  one  succeeded  is  a  "licentia  poetica"  of  which 
Dr.  Leete  makes  free  use.  You  must  know  yourself 
that  it  is  a  gross  exaggeration. 

The  saving  from  the  employment  of  steam-cooking 
we  have  already  investigated.  If  there  is  any,  it  is 
small  in  the  cities  and  smaller  still  in  the  country 
districts,  and  offers  no  compensation  for  the  loss  of 
comfort  involved.     Furthermore  we  take  into  consid- 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  85 

eration  that  many  of  the  men  engaged  as  judges, 
lawyers,  bankers,  officers,  middlemen,  or  clerks  were 
over  forty-five  years  or  under  twenty-one,  so  that  you 
would  have  to  deduct  them  from  the  force  that  you 
have  to  consider  as  a  loss  to  the  industrial  army". 

"Still,  these   misplacements  of   capital    and   labor, 
these  losses  in  various  ways  were  enormous",  I  insisted, 
"and    they  account  for    the   greater  poverty  of   the 
people  of  the  nineteenth  century,  compared  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  in  the  year  2000". 
"They    would,  undoubtedly",    Mr.   Forest  argued, 
"if  there  were  no  other  reasons  for  a  decrease  of  our 
production.     But  there  are  causes  as  you  will  readily 
see,  when  I  point  them   out.     The    principle    reason 
why  both   the  quantity    and    the  quality   of   our  pro- 
duction are  constantly  abating,  is  the  abolishment  of 
competition.     Competition  was    the    gigantic    motor 
that  caused  nearly  everybody  during   the  first   nine- 
teen centuries  of  Christian  civilization   to  use  all  his 
mental  and  physical  powers  to  "get  ahead".       Since 
the  introduction  of  communism,  since  the  good  work- 
men are  robbed  of  a  part  of  the  products  of  their  labor 
for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  workers,  and  since  every- 
body is  sure  of  an  equal   share  of  all  the  necessities 
and  commodities  of  life,  no  matter  how  much  or  how 
little  he  produces,  the   masses   of  the  people  are  be- 
coming more  and  more    indifferent.     They    are  not 
putting  forth  their  best  efforts  to  furnish  much  and 
good  work.     They  are  taking  life  easy.     Their    men- 
tal and  physical  ability  has  decreased.     The    people 


86  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

ot  the  United  States,  once  famous  for  their  energy,  are 
degenerating  Promotion  might  have  acted  as  a  spur, 
had  not  favoritism  of  the  poHticians  monopolized 
all  good  positions  for  the  tools  of  the  administration". 
**The  second  reason  for  the  decrease  of  produc- 
tion is  the  shortening  of  both  the  years  and  the 
hours  of  work.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  how  many 
persons  of  different  ages  were  employed  in  your  time 
in  productive  labor.  The  census  of  the  United  States 
government  taken  before  you  went  to  sleep  for  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  years,  the  census  of  1880  is  in 
many  respects  a  very  creditable  work  but  it  does  not 
give  the  ages  of  the  persons  who  then  formed  the 
industrial  army.  The  report  is  very  elaborate  as  to 
the  number  of  persons  ot  all  ages,  their  nationality, 
and  so  forth.  But  in  regard  to  the  age  of  the  workers 
it  only  gives  three  classes,  one  comprising  all  the 
persons  under  15  years  of  age,  another,  all  persons 
between  16  and  59,  and  the  third,  the  number  of  em- 
ployees of  60  years  and  over.  Of  the  people  under 
15  years  of  age  1,118,356  were  employed,  of  the  men 
and  women  over  60  years  933,644  were  males  and 
70,873  females.  The  whole  industrial  army  of  your 
day  numbered,  out  of  an  entire  population  of  50, 155,- 
783,  not  less  than  17,392,099,  only  2,647,157  being 
girls  and  women,  including  the  servant  girls". 

"I  remember  reading  some  of  these  figures",  I 
remarked. 

''The  census  of  1880  thus  shows  that  over  12  per- 
cent of  the  population  of  the  United  States  belonging 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  87 

to  the  industrial  army  were  under  15  and  over  60 
years  of  age',  Mr.  Forest  continued.  ''This  is,  of 
course,  a  very  bad  showing.  Girls  and  boys  under  15 
years  of  age  should  certainly  belong  to  the  schools, 
while  people  over  50  years  ought  to  have  permanent 
rest  and  a  good  living.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  working-force  at  the  close  of  the  last  century 
was  comparatively  larger  than  ours.  According  to 
the  census  of  1880,  there  lived  in  the  United  States 
15^527^215  persons  of  the  age,  that  would  make  them 
to-day  members  of  our  industrial  army.  You  em- 
ployed, therefore,  2,173,184  more  persons  than  your 
whole  population  between  the  ages  of  21  10  45  num- 
bered, and  this  calculation  figures,  that  all  the  people 
of  that  age  are  really  active.  You  must  consider  the 
fact,  that  many  of  our  population  who  are  of  the  age, 
when  they  ought  to  do  work  in  the  industrial  army, 
are  excused  from  service  for  various  reasons,  for  in- 
stance: permanently  sick  people,  the  weak-minded, 
cripples,  mothers  of  babies,  etc,  You  must,  therefore, 
recognize  that  your  people  furnished  a  much  stronger 
working- force  than  does  our  generation.  ' 

"I  guess  we  did",  I  admitted,  convinced  by  the 
figures  quoted  by  Mr.  Forest. 

Drawing  a  piece  of  paper  from  his  note  book  the 
gentleman  continued:  "Here  is  a  list  of  all  the  avoca- 
tions you  may  call  unproductive,  taken  from  the 
census  of  1880.  I  have  given  every  point,  which 
seems  contrary  to  my  views,  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 
I  have  embraced  all  the  trades,  professions  and  occu- 


88  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

pations  Dr.  Leete  himself  could  fairly  claim  as  non- 
productive in  this  compilation,  though  a  good  many 
of  the  people  engaged  in  them  were,  at  least,  saving 
time  for  members  of  the  producing  classes.  Many 
men  and  women  of  your  time  would  not  have  been 
able  to  produce  pictures  and  works  of  art,  or  to  sing 
in  operas  and  so  forth,  if  it  had  been  impossible  for 
ihem  to  secure  help  in  housekeeping.  Now,  in  your 
day,  ihe  year  of  our  Lord  1880,  the  people  engaged 
in  the  occupations,  trades  and  professions  that  Dr. 
Leete  would  call  nonproductive,  numbered  1,654,319 
including  all  the  servants.  Deducting  these  1,654,319 
from  the  2,173,084  persons  under  tiie  age  of  15  and 
over  60,  there  still  would  be  a  surplus  of  518,765 
women  and  men  of  your  time  over  the  number  of 
people,  that  would  belong  in  our  days  to  the  industrial 
force" 

"Your  figures  are  correct,  as  far  as  you  state  them", 
I  said,  desirous  to  encourage  Mr.  Forest  to  proceed 
with  his  argument. 

"So  you  had,  undoubtedly,  in  1880  a  surplus  of 
productive  persons  above  ths  age  that  would  place 
them  in  our  industrial  army,  which  amounted  to  over 
one  percent  of  the  population,  and  to  over  three  per- 
cent of  persons  at  ihe  age  where  they,  to-day,  would 
have  to  be  members  of  the  industrial  army,  even  if 
we  deduct  all  the  persons  from  the  working  force 
whom  a  man  like  Dr.  Leete  would  classify  as  non- 
productive Now,  deduct,  furthermore,  all  our  ladies 
occupied  by  their  duties  as  mothers,  before  and  after 


LOOKING    FORWARD.  89 

the  birth  of  their  children,  deduct  all  the  persons  per- 
manently sick,  all  the  cripples  and  all  the  other  people 
unable  to  do  productive  work,  and  you  will  have  to 
admit  that  you  had  in  your  days  a  comparatively 
much  larger  force  engaged  in  productive  labor  than 
we  have.  Consider,  that  these  people  were  stimulated 
by  competition,  that  they  desired  to  establish  them- 
selves on  an  independent  basis,  that  they  put  forth 
their  best  eftorts,  in  order  to  secure  a  life  free  from 
care  during  their  old  age,  and  that,  therefore,  the  years 
of  productive  labor  of  each  individual  were  much 
longer  than  they  are  at  present,  and  that  the  stimulus 
to  succeed  was  a  potent  fact  in  obtaining  more  and 
better  work  than  we  can  secure  nowadays. 

"That  I  will  admit",  I  answered. 

"And  the  working  hours  to-day  are  much  shorter 
than  they  were  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century", 
proceeded  Mr.  Forest  with  an  expression  on  his  face 
like  that  of  a  victor  in  a  gladiatorial  fight.  "The 
natural  tendency  of  an  organization  of  society  like 
ours  is  in  that  direction.  And  there  are  many  reasons 
to  encourage  such  a  tendency.  I  have  mentioned 
already  that  the  farmers  are  complaining  of  the  small 
number  of  theaters  and  concert  halls  and  other 
amusements  and  advantages  for  country  people,  which 
city  people  enjoy  to  the  full  The  consequence  of  this 
is,  that  the  country  people  flock  to  the  cities.  The 
nation  would  have  suffeied  from  a  want  of  agricultural 
products  if  all  the  people  crowding  into  the  large  cities 
had  been   accepted.     But  they  were  not  welcomed. 


90  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

They  were  appointed  to  farm  work.  That  settled 
their  desire  to  live  in  the  cities,  and  at  the  same  time 
destroyed  their  ambition.  The  country  people  are  sat- 
isfied that  they  cannot  improve  their  lot,  that  they 
have  to  do  farm  work  and  that  the  city  people  are  im- 
posing upon  them.  The  consequence  is  that  they 
are  working  as  little  as  possible,  and  the  farming  prod- 
ucts have  decreased  to  such  an  extent  that  we  have  to 
appoint  city  workmen  of  class  B  of  the  third  grade  to 
farm  work,  in  order  to  protect  the  city  people  from 
starvation", 

"Say  your  worst",  I  remarked  with  a  forced  smile, 
for  I  saw  Dr.  Leete's  beautiful  structure  crumbling 
under  the  fire  of  Mr.  Forest's  artillery  of  logic. 

*'You  have  seen",  Mr.  Forest  continued,  ''that  the 
industrial  army  of  1880,  engaged  in  productive  labor, 
was.  in  proportion,  much  larger  than  ours,  that  the 
members  were  stimulated  by  competition  to  use  their 
best  mental  and  physical  efforts  to  'get  ahead',  and 
that  they  worked  longer  hours  than  we  do.  You  must, 
furthermore,  consider  that  we  squander  a  greater 
amount  of  labor  in  overseeing  and  bookkeeping  than 
you  ever  did.  Most  of  your  retail  business  was  trans- 
acted on  the  cash  basis,  and  the  small  tradespeople 
did  their  own  bookkeeping  after  closing  their  stores 
and  shops.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  have  an  account 
for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  country  in  the 
books  of  the  nacional  administration*).  We  have  a 
bureau  which  keeps  an  account  of  the  visits  of  all  the 

*)  Page  87. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  91 

physicians*).  We  have  another  bureau  where  you 
can  secure  help  for  housework  as  well  as  for  other 
purposes,  where  accounts  are  kept,  both  of  the  help- 
ers and  of  the  people  who  demand  help,**)  We  have 
bureaus  for  each  industry  and  they  are  excellent  exam- 
ples of  the  most  thorough  manner  in  which  a  gov- 
ernment can  waste  human  labor.  The  entire  field  of 
productive  and  constructive  industry  is,  as  you  know, 
divided  into  ten  great  departments,  each  representing 
a  group  of  allied  industries,  each  particular  industry 
being  in  turn  represented  by  a  subordinate  bureau, 
which  has  a  complete  record  of  the  plant  and  force 
under  its  control,  as  well  as  of  the  present  product 
and  the  means  of  increasing  it.  The  estimates  of  con- 
sumption of  the  distribution  department  (an  organ- 
ization mdependent  ot  the  great  productive  depart- 
ments) after  adoption  by  the  administration,  are  sent 
as  mandates  to  the  ten  great  departments  which  allot 
them  to  the  subordinate  bureaus  representing  the  par- 
ticular industries,  and  these  set  the  men  to  work. 
Each  bureau  is  responsible  for  the  task  given  it,  and 
the  responsibility  is  enforced  by  departmental  super- 
vision and  that  of  the  administration;  nor  does  the 
distribution  department  accept  the  products  without 
its  own  inspection,  while,  even  if  in  the  hands  of  the 
consumer,  an  article  turns  out  unfit,  the  system  en- 
ables the  fault  to  be  traced  back  to  the  original  work- 
man".f) 

*)  Page  122. 

**)  Page  120. 

f)  Pages  182,  I  S3. 


92  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

"This  amount  of  overseeing  and  bookkeeping,  by 
which  the  government  can  trace  back  to  the  original 
workman  a  bad  pin  or  a  poorly  rolled  cigar,  enables 
the  administration  to  provide  for  its  favorites  many 
desirable  places,  but  it  certainly  lessens  the  productive 
power  of  the  industrial  force,  thus,  again,  decreasing 
the  production.  And  at  the  same  time  the  number  of 
consumers  is  larger  than  in  your  days". 

"How  do  you  account  for  this?"  I  inquired. 

"Has  not  Dr.  Leete  informed  you  that  persons  of 
average  constitution  usually  live  to  be  from  eighty-five 
to  ninety  years  old?"*) 

"Indeed,  he  has". 

"This  accounts  for  an  increased  number  of  con- 
sumers who  all  draw  their  full  share  of  the  products 
of  labor  in  the  form  of  a  credit  card",  Mr.  Forest 
continued.  "Our  people  live  longer  than  your  con- 
temporaries did.  They  take  life  easy,  and  while  the 
spirit,  the  energy  and  the  enterprise  of  our  generation 
are  gradually  decreasing  and  degenerating,  their 
bodies  last  longer". 

"Ah!  now  at  last  you  are  admitting  one  gain",  I  ex- 
claimed. 

"If  it  is  a  gain,  I  do",  rejoined  Mr.  Forest.  "But 
even  the  favored  members  of  our  industrial  army  do 
not  seem  to  consider  it  a  very  valuable  acquisition. 
Because  the  only  way  to  secure  a  desirable  position  is 
to  sacrifice  their  own  independence  and  that  of  their 
relatives  and  friends,  and  even  to  employ  base  means 

*)  Page  197. 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  93 

of  corruption,  downright  bribery  of  their  superiors 
with  a  part  of  their  own  credit  cards,  many  of  the 
favorites  of  the  administration  are,  in  fact,  enemies  of 
the  leaders". 

After  a  short  pause  Mr.  Forest  concluded  his  argu- 
ments. "I  suppose  I  have  successfully  demonstrated 
that  our  organization  of  society,  with  its  pretended 
basis  of  human  equality  has  proved  to  be  a  failure, 
that  there  prevails  to-day  an  inequality  in  many  re- 
spects more  oppressive  than  that  of  your  time,  that 
favoritism  and  corruption  are  about  as  potent  under 
our  communistic  rule  as  they  were  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  that  personal  liberty  is  almost  en- 
tirely destroyed,  that  the  members  of  the  industrial 
army,  without  having  the  right  to  vote  at  the  election 
of  their  superiors,  are  at  the  mercy  of  their  officers, 
that  the  members  of  the  industrial  force  who  are  con- 
sidered enemies  of  the  government  are  leading  a  Hfe 
that  very  properly  may  be  styled  as  twenty-four  years 
of  hell  on  earth,  that  since  the  abolishment  of  com- 
petition the  people  are  mentally  degenerating  for  want 
of  intellectual  exercise,  and  that  not  even  a  greater 
wealth  is  a  consolation  for  the  loss  of  the  greater  lib- 
erty and  independence  the  people  enjoyed  in  your 
time.  The  shortening  of  both  the  years  and  the  hours 
of  productive  labor,  the  abolition  of  competition  and 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  consumers  have  reduced 
the  average  daily  income  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  to  such  an  extent  that  the  amount  in- 
scribed upon  our  credit  card  is  so  small,  that  it  af- 


94  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

fords  only  a  very  frugal  living  to  the  people  of  the 
twentieth  century.  And  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind 
that  a  continuation  of  the  present  system  for  a  few 
hundred  years  more  would  so  degrade  and  degenerate 
the  people  that  a  relapse  into  barbarism  would  ensue" 


CHAPTER  VII. 

*You  have  given  me  your  ideas  and  objections  in 
regard  to  the  present  state  of  affairs",  I  commenced 
my  next  conversation  with  Mr.  Forest,  "you  have  ex- 
pressed, occasionally,  your  conviction  that  the  organ- 
ization of  society  at  the  end  of  the  last  century  needed 
reformation.  Will  you,  now,  kindly  state  how  you 
would  have  reformed  the  evils  of  my  time?" 

Mr.  Forest  smiled.  *'I  do  not  pretend  to  be  a  re- 
former who  can  perfect  mankind  or  even  all  human 
institutions.  Please  do  not  forget  that  we  are  all 
cooking  with  water.  What  many  people  style  the  so- 
cial question  is  insolvable.  The  variety  established 
by  nature  will  always  be  felt.  You  can  never  create 
conformity.  We  will  always  have  smart  and  stupid, 
industrious  and  lazy  people.  The  clever  women  and 
men  will  not  submit  to  an  equal  distribution  of  the 
product  of  labor,  nor  feel  satisfied  under  such  a  state 
of  legal  robbery.  And  if  the  results  of  labor  are  dis- 
tributed according  to  the  ability  of  the  workers  the 
people  earning  less  than  others  will  always  grumble. 
It  is,  therefore,  impossible  to  make  all  men  content 
with  their  lot,  no  matter  how  you  may  distribute  the 
earnings  of  the  working  force.  But  the  fact  that  it  is 
impossible  to  make  everybody  absolutely  happy  does 


96  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

not  release  us  from  the  obligation  to  use  our  best  ef- 
forts toward  improving  the  lot  of  mankind". 

"I  understand  your  position.  But  let  me  hear  what 
reforms  you  would  have  inaugurated  or  proposed,  if 
you  had  lived  at  the  close  of  the  last  century". 

'*The  society  of  your  day  suffered  chiefly",  said  Mr. 
Forest,  "from  unsystematized  production, the  monopo- 
lies that  made  possible  the  amassing  of  immense  for- 
tunes at  the  expense  of  the  people,  and  the  want  of 
intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  workers  who  would 
either  submit  to  these  extortions  or  strike,  instead  of 
forming  mutual  producing  associations.  Another 
great  evil  was  the  injustice  of  your  taxation.  In  all 
the  fields  of  human  activity  the  workers  produced 
values  without  a  clear  knowledge  of  what  was  really 
required.  There  was,  generally,  such  a  surplus  of  the 
products  of  farming  that  the  farmers  had  to  sell  every- 
thing so  cheap  that  they  could  hardly  earn  a  living. 
Some  factories  worked  day  and  night  until  the  markets 
were  overstocked  with  goods.  Then  these  goods  were 
sold  at  any  price  obtainable,  sometimes  below  cost. 
Numerous  bankruptcies  followed,  the  factories  had  to, 
stop  their  work,  and  the  manufacturers  as  well  as  the 
v/orking  women  and  men  had  to  suifer  from  a  term  of 
idleness  until  the  surplus  of  goods  was  exhausted. 
Then  a  feverish  activity  commenced  again". 

"How  would  you  have  remedied  this  evil?"  I  asked. 

"A  national  bureau  of  statistics  should  have  ascer- 
tained both  the  average  yearly  consumption  and  the 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  97 

capacity  of   the   different  trades  and  their  plants  for 
the  production  of  the  necessities  of  life". 

"Should  the  government  have  given  to  each  trade 
an  order  for  the  work  to  be  done  during  the  year?"  I 
queried,  "and  how  should  the  trades  have  divided 
such  an  order  among  the  members  so  that  all  would 
be  satisfied?" 

"The  National  Government  should  simply  have  as- 
certained the  amount  of  the  yearly  consumption  of 
the  various  articles,  the  capacity  of  the  respective 
trades  for  furnishing  such  articles,  and  should  then 
have  left  the  regulation  of  production  to  the  members 
of  each  trade.  Such  an  arrangement  would  have 
given  each  trade  a  clear  idea  of  its  task.  The  chosen 
representatives  of  each  trade  could  have  subdivided 
the  work.  A  heavy  overproduction  would  easily  have 
been  prevented,  while  competition  both  among  the 
factories  and  the  individual  members  would  have 
been  mamtained,  thus  securing  the  best  kind  of  work, 
while  under  the  present  system  of  production  we  are 
suffering  from  a  want  both  of  quantity  and  quality". 

"But  if  any  trade  should  have  produced  more  goods 
than  needed",  I  objected. 

"That  would  have  been  its  own  fault,  and  it  would, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  have  had  to  stand  the  conse- 
quences", Mr.  Forest  replied. 

"But,  suppose,  the  members  of  a  certain  trade  had 
formed  a  trust,  thereby  forcing  the  people  to  pay  ex- 
orbitant prices  for  the  products  of  their  guilds?"  I  ob- 
jected again. 


98  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

"A  national  law  shoukl  have  protected  the  people 
against  an  attempted  robbery  of  this  kind,  threatening 
all  guilty  parties  with  confiscation  of  all  their  property 
and  with  the  operation  of  all  the  plants  by  men  hired 
by  the  administration,  until  the  plants  could  be  sold 
to  operators.  The  importation  of  the  respective  goods 
from  other  countries  would  cover  the  deficiency  until 
all  the  plants  were  again  in  full  operation". 

"But  how  would  you  have  stopped  the  frequent 
strikes  of  our  days?"  I  asked. 

"By  encouraging  the  workman  to  start  mutual  pro- 
ducing associations",  Mr.  Forest  answered.  "I  have 
mentioned  already  how  mutual  producing  associa- 
tions could  easily  have  been  started.  A  dozen  tailors 
or  shoemakers  could  have  rented  lofts  with  steam 
power,  purchased  a  few  sewing  and  other  machines 
and  sold  their  products  directly  to  other  workmen, 
thus  securing  the  profits  of  tne  manufacturer,  whole- 
saler, retailer  and  workman,  or  in  other  words  all  the 
profit  that  was  in  the  labor  of  the  members  of  the  as- 
sociation. There  was  no  law  in  your  time  to  forbid 
such  enterprises  or  to  prevent  all  other  workmen  from 
buying  their  boots,  shoes,  clothing,  furniture  and  al 
other  articles  from  such  associations  solely.  As 
soon  as  the  manufacturers  noticed  that  all  the  la- 
borers were  commencing  to  deal  with  mutual  associa- 
tions they  would  gladly  have  sold  their  plants  at  a 
very  fair  price,  and  yet  cheaper  than  a  new  associa- 
tion could  have  procured  them.  I  imagine  there  was 
very  little  pleasure  in  conducting  a   factory  or  any 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  99 

other  business  having  many  employees  in  1887,  judg- 
ing from  the  frequent  strikes  that  made  it  almost  im- 
possible for  many  business  men  to  figure  on  prices 
six  months  ahead,  or  to  close  contracts.  Therefore, 
the  owners  of  factories  would,  I  fancy,  have  sold  their 
plants  at  very  fair  prices.  And  the  workmen  could 
not  have  done  a  smarter  thing  than  to  cause  the 
former  manufacturers  to  remain  with  them  as  busi- 
ness managers  at  a  fair  salary.  This  would  have  se- 
cured a  smooth  running  of  the  concern.  Under  such 
an  arrangement  the  workers  would  have  become  the 
owners  of  the  business  concerns,  paying  for  them  in 
installments,  they  would  have  secured  full  pay  for 
their  work,  and  the  former  owner  would  have  dis- 
posed of  all  his  former  cares,  receiving  a  fair  compen- 
sation for  his  plant  and  his  services". 

"I  think  that  most  of  the  manufacturers  and  busi- 
nessmen of  my  days  were  so  worried  by  the  constantly 
increased  demands  of  their  employees,  that  they 
would  have  gladly  sold  their  property",  I  remarked, 
"but  what  would  have  become  of  the  wholesale  and 
retail  dealers?" 

"They  could  have  sold  their  goods  and  have  either 
joined  the  producing  associations  as  salesmen  or  gone 
into  another  business",  Mr.  Forest  replied.  "And  in 
a  similar  way  the  workmen  of  your  time  could  have 
organized  one  trade  after  another,  until  the  entire 
manufacturing  industry  had  been  based  on  large 
guilds,  the  latter  consisting  mostly  of  mutual  produc- 
ing societies". 


loo  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

''But  our  workmen  preferred  to  avoid  the  responsi- 
bility, care  a-nd  risk  of  business  enterprises.  They 
would  rather  have  worked  for  wages  and,  occasion- 
ally tried  to  increase  them,  sometimes  by  striking  and 
preventing  other  laborers  taking  the  places  of  the 
strikers",  I  said.  "You  are  aware  of  this  state  of  af- 
fairs?" 

"Yes",  Forest  answered,  "and  it  must  have  been  a 
sad  spectacle  to  see  intelligent  men  who  could  just  as 
well  have  been  independent,  remain  journeymen, 
trying  to  bulldoze  their  employer  to  pay  them  more 
than  he  volunteered,  and  to  intimidate  other  workers 
from  performing  duties  at  a  rate  of  wages  that  would 
have  satisfied  them.  The  fact  that  your  workingmen 
did  not  possess  sufficient  enterprise,  mental  discipline 
and  independence,  to  establish  mutual  producing  as- 
sociations, has  driven  humanity  into  communism. 
That  this  damnable  form  of  society  is  a  failure  is  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  When  humanity  was  at  so  low  a  standard 
that  shoemakers  had  not  spunk  or  smartness  enough 
to  start  and  run  the  shoeshops  on  a  co-operative  basis, 
and  tailors  could  not  manage  tailorshops  on  a  similar 
plan,  it  was  simply  impossible  to  make  successful  an 
organization  which  had  the  power  to  regulate  all  pro- 
duction and  all  consumption.  But  the  principle  of 
mutual  productive  associations  is,  in  my  opinion,  the 
one  best  adapted  for  the  solution  of  the  labor  ques- 
tion, because  it  secures  for  the  members  of  the  asso- 
ciations the  pay  for  the  full  real  value  of  their  labor 
and  keeps  alive   competition,  tne  strongest   factor  in 


LOOKING    FORWARD.  loi 

securing  the  progress  of  mankind.  But  whether  we 
shall  ever  reach  this  solution  of  the  labor  question 
seems  doubtful". 

"I  am  inclined  to  believe  in  your  plan",  I  admitted' 
*'so  far  as  laborers  engaged  in  manufacturing  establish- 
ments are  concerned.  But  how  would  you  have  or- 
ganized the  work  on  the  farms,  the  employment  of 
professional  man,  railroad  officials  and  laborers,  em- 
ployees on  streetcars,  merchants  and  bankers  and 
their  clerks  and  those  who  follow  many  other  avoca- 
tions?" 

"Let  us  go  slowly",  Mr.  Forest  answered  with  a 
smile.  <'Let  us  first  look  into  the  agrarian  question. 
Reformers  of  society  have  always  met  the  greatest 
difficulty  when  they  came  across  the  farmers.  Under 
communistic  rule  the  country  people  have  but  very  little 
love  for  the  soil  they  are  tilling  because  they  knowit  is  not 
theirs,  that  their  toiling  does  not  benefit  them,  and  they 
feel  that  the  city  people  are  favored  ac  their  expense.  If 
I  had  been  asked  at  the  end  of  the  last  century  how  I 
would  treat  the  land  question  I  would  have  advocated 
a  law  ordaining  that  no  farmer  should  have  more  than 
forty  acres  of  land.  If  any  farmer  had  more  at  the 
time  of  the  passing  of  the  bill  he  could  keep  it  during 
his  lifetime,  but  he  would  be  compelled  to  dispose  of 
it  in  his  last  will,  so  that  a  single  person  should  not 
receive  more  than  forty  acres.  On  a  forty  acre  piece 
a  farmer  can  make  a  fair  living,  and  although  the 
farmers  were  by  no  means  prosperous  in  your  days, 
yet  there  was  still  a  fair  prospect   for  tht-  increase    of 


I02  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

the  value  of  land  by  reason  of  the  increase  of  the  pop- 
ulation, augmented  as  it  was  by  immigration". 

"But  how  would  you  have  proposed  to  stop  over- 
production by  the  farming  population  through  which 
the  agricultural  interests  were  suffering  in  1887?"  I  in- 
quired. 

"Fhe  National  Bureau  of  Statistics  would  have 
served  the  farmers  just  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the 
people.  The  farmers  should  have  formed  state  asso- 
ciations and  should  have  laid  out  plans  for  the  pro- 
duction according  to  the  capacity  of  the  farms.  And, 
after  ascertaining  that  their  capacity  of  production 
was  far  ahead  of  consumption,  they  should  have  used 
the  surplus  of  land  for  the  productton  of  new  things 
that  could,  perhaps,  find  a  market,  or  they  could  have 
saved  their  labor  by  not  producing  more  goods  than 
they  could  sell  in  supplying  the  real  demands  of  the 
market,  thus  working  less." 

"Under  your  plan  every  person  would  not  have 
had  a  right  to  land",  I  remarked. 

"Yes,  everybody  would,  who  could  pay  the  price 
the  owner  demanded  for  it",  Mr.  Forest  said.  "Not 
everybody  can  own  a  farm.     Did  you  own  one?" 

"I  did  not". 

"Very  well.  Under  your  communistic  system  no- 
body owns  a  piece  of  ground  large  enough  to  put  a 
stick  into". 

"How  would  you  have  regulated  the  professional 
services?" 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  103 

''By  passing  laws  establishing  rates  to  be  charged 
for  professional  services.  And  the  laws  I  would  have 
simplified  by  doing  away  with  the  abominable  confu- 
sion resulting  from  the  innumerable  decisions  forming 
precedents.  For  a  long  time  I  did  not  believe  it  until 
I  found  positive  statements  to  the  effect  that  a  trad- 
ing nation  like  the  Americans,  at  the  end  of  the  nine 
teenth  century,  had  neither  a  national  criminal  law, 
nor  a  national  commerce  law.  This  fact  and  the  con- 
fusion caused  by  the  conflicting  precedent  decisions 
that  could  always  be  quoted  by  either  of  the  contest- 
ing lawyers  in  a  suit  must  have  made  the  United 
States,  in  your  days,  a  paradise  for  swindlers  and  for 
lawyers  who  cared  not  so  much  for  the  upholding  of 
the  law,  as  for  a  retainer". 

"Such  were  the  charges  frequently  made  against  the 
law  and  lawyers  in  my  days",  I  said.  "But  now  tell 
me  what  you  would  have  done  with  the  railroad  and 
telegraph  employees,  with — " 

"Let  us  stop  right  here",  Mr.  Forest  interrupted. 
"I  would  have  purchased  all  the  railroads  and  all  the 
telegraph  lines  of  the  country  at  a  fair  price.  I  would 
have  issued  United  States  bonds  to  pay  for  them.  I 
would  have  used  the  income  of  the  roads  and  lines  to 
pay  running  expenses  and  the  interest  on  the  bonds 
issued,  and  the  surplus  in  the  United  States  treasury 
I  would  have  applied  to  paying  off  the  bonds". 

"But  would  not  this  proposition  of  yours,  if  car- 
ried into  effect,  have  brought  about  the  same  horrors 
you  declare  the  concentration  of  power  in  the  hands 


I04  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

of  the  administration  has  brought  down  on  humanity 
of  the  twentieth  century?"  I  asked. 

"No.  For  that  the  officers  would  not  be  numerous 
enough*',  Mr.  Forest  replied;  "and  I  remember  dis- 
tinctly, that  in  your  days  civil  service  reform  had 
been  instituted,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  appointment 
of  federal  officers.  I  have  read  conflicting  opinions 
about  it.  Some  writers  claimed  a  frequent  change  of 
the  officers  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  republican 
institutions.  Others  ridiculed  this  notion.  Every 
man  of  common  sense  would  keep  a  man  who  knew 
and  performed  the  duties  of  his  position  well.  And 
the  nation  should  simply  do  the  same  regardless  of 
the  party  affiliations  of  the  employee,  thus  securing  a 
good  public  service.  I  remember  that  letter  carriers 
and  other  employees  of  the  postoffice  department 
could  not  be  removed  without  cause.  Now,  if  this 
principle  had  been  applied  to  all  the  clerical  and  sub- 
ordinate officers,  if  all  the  railroad  and  telegraph  offi- 
cials, when  the  nation  took  charge  of  these  institutions, 
had  been  retained  at  the  salaries  they  were  receiving  at 
that  time,  so  long  as  they  did  their  work  well,  then 
there  would  have  been  no  trouble.  Uncle  Sam  would 
have  paid  just  as  much,  if  not  more,  than  the  former 
corporations  did,  and  by  retaining  the  whole  force  he 
could  have  united  the  railroad  and  telegraph  lines 
with  the  postal  service  after  the  fashion  already  pre- 
vailing, at  that  time,  in  Germany". 

"That  theory  sounds  very  plausible,  certainly". 

"It  is  very  remarkable  that  such  a  smart  and  ener- 
getic people,  trading  as  much  as   our  forefathers  did. 


LOOKING    FORWARD.  105 

should  have  allowed  the  principal  means  of  commerce, 
the  railroad  and  telegraph  lines,  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
private  corporations  which,  as  a  matter  of  course,  man- 
aged them  simply  with  a  view  of  paying  as  large  divi- 
dends as  possible  to  the  shareholders, — sometimes  for 
"a  wheel  within  a  wheel",  for  members  of  the  inner 
circle.  In  the  historical  works  of  your  time  I  fre- 
quently note  expressions  of  astonishment  and  wrath 
because  knights,  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  in  Europe,  stopped  merchants  passing  the 
roads  below  their  castles,  and  demanded  a  part  of  the 
travellers'  goods  as  a  toll,  or  the  payment  of  a  certain 
sum  of  money  for  which  they  agreed  either  to  let  the 
merchants  travel  in  peace  or  to  furnish  them  with  pro- 
tection for  the  rest  of  their  journey.  These  knights 
had  to  risk  their  lives  when  they  undertook  to  collect 
a  toll  from  the  merchants,  for  the  latter  not  unfre- 
quently  showed  fight;  they  knew  how  to  handle  a  lance 
or  a  sword  and  they  had  their  goods  protected  by 
armed  men.  More  than  one  of  the  enterprising,  toll- 
levying  knights  died  on  the  highway,  where  he  had 
tried  to  attach  a  share  of  the  merchant's  earnings. 
But  the  gentlemen  controlling  the  highways  of  traffic 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century  could  levy  new  tolls, 
whenever  they  pleased.  All  they  had  to  do  was  to  sit 
down  in  Delmonico's  or  some  other  good  restaurant, 
and  over  a  few  bottles  of  champagne  resolve  to  do  so. 
There  was  no  danger  connected  with  this  business  of 
toll  levying  in  your  days,  Mr.  West,  except  the  danger 
of  a  headache  wheh  the   champagne   happened  to  be 


io6  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

poor.  It  was  a  very  remarkable  state  of  affairs,  and  it  is  a 
striking  proof  of  the  general  fairness  and  good  nature 
of  the  railroad  magnates  of  1887  that  they  treated  the 
people  as  well  as  they  did.  Still,  it  was  a  ridiculous 
spectacle  to  see  the  principal  highways  of  such  a 
business  people  controlled  by  private  corporations 
that  virtually  did  precisely  what  they  pleased". 

"The  gas  works,  street  railways  and  waterworks  of 
cities  you  would  have  had  managed  by  the  city  authori- 
ties, 1  suppose?"  I  said. 

"Indeed,  that  is  what  I  would  have  done",  Mr.  Forest 
replied.  "But  I  would  first  have  extended  the 
power  of  the  national  administration  over  all  the  for- 
est and  mining  lands  then  in  the  possession  of  the 
United  States.  If  the  national  government  had  taken 
care  of  the  remnants  of  the  immense  forests  that  once 
covered  the  larger  part  of  this  vast  territory,  we  would 
not  at  present  suffer  from  a  lack  of  timber". 

"What  would  you  have  done  with  the  bankers  and 
merchants?" 

"Nothing",  Mr.  Forest  answered.  "The  different 
mutual  productive  associations  would  have  needed 
men  to  manage  such  business  affairs  as  were  outside 
the  management  of  the  factory,  attended  to  by  the 
former  manufacturer.  For  the  workmen  would  soon 
have  found  out  that  it  required  more  than  the  manual 
labor  of  the  toilers  to  build  up  and  run  a  large  busi- 
ness establishment.  And  the  owners  of  grocery  stores 
would,  if  similar  establishments  had  been  started  by 
consuming  societies,  have    sold  their  stock  on  hand 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  107 

and  secured  places  as  managers  or  clerks  of  the  new 
stores". 

"I  suppose  that  under  the  system  proposed  by  you 
all  the  old-fashioned  stores  would  have  been  forced 
to  close  out",  I  said,  "because  the  different  guilds 
would  have  purchased  goods  at  wholesale  and  would 
have  sold  them  to  their  members  at  a  low  cash  price. 
The  storekeepers  that  were  not  able  to  secure  posi- 
tions in  the  stores  of  the  different  guilds  would  have 
been  forced  to  look  out  for  some  other  employment; 
— a  rather  hard  lot  for  many  of  them". 

"The  change  in  the  mode  of  production  would  not 
have  been  sudden",  Mr.  Forest  explained,  "but  would 
have  been  brought  about  gradually,  thus  giving  the 
business  people,  perhaps  thirty  years  time,  to  let 
their  children  join  guilds  instead  of  becoming  store- 
keepers and  traders:  And  there  is  no  reason  why 
enterprising  merchants  who  had  a  fine  taste  in  select- 
ing goods,  should  not  have  retained  a  large  number 
of  customers.  It  is  not  cheapness  alone  that  attracts 
buyers,  and  in  the  country,  where  there  were  no  fac- 
tories, etc.,  close  at  hand,  stores  would  have  to  be 
kept". 

"You  said  you  would  have  passed  laws  preventing  far- 
mers owning  more  than  forty  acres  of  land",  I  said^ 
''Would  you  have  also  limited  the  amount  of  city 
property  to  be  owned  by  any  one  man?" 

"The  possession  of  one  house  ought  to  have  satis- 
fied every  fair-minded  man",  Mr.  Forest  continued. 
"Nobody  can  deny  that  the  accumulation  of  fortunes 


io8  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

amounting  to  many  millions  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
people,  while  hundreds  of  thousands  could  earn  hardly 
more  than  a  living,  was  a  state  of  affairs  which  made 
this  damnable  communism  possible". 

"But  how  would  you  have  been  able  to  prevent 
this?"  I  queried  with  some  curiosity. 

'•By  making  the  taxation  of  inherited  property  the 
principal  assessment  for  the  maintenance  of  the  na- 
tional, state  and  local  governments  as  well  as  of  the 
schools.  I  would  have  proposed  a  tax  of  one  percent 
on  all  property  inherited  by  a  single  person,  amount- 
ing upward  to  1 10,000.  An  inheritance  amounting  to 
$20,000  I  would  have  taxed  two  percent,  $30,000 
three  percent,  $100,000  ten  percent,  $200,000  twenty 
percent,  ^500,000  fifty  percent.  If  anybody  left  a 
fortune  yielding  a  larger  sum  than  $250,000  to  each 
heir,  the  surplus  should  have  been  considered  as  an 
income  to  humanity,  the  national,  state  and  local 
governments  sharing  therein  in  a  just  proportion', 

"Would  not  such  a  law  have  acted  as  a  check  upon 
the  ambition  and  the  enterprise  of  the  people?"  I 
asked. 

"If  it  had  prevented  people  amassing  immense  for- 
tunes it  would  have  served  a  good  purpose.  It  would 
not  have  lessened  but  protected  competition",  Mr. 
Forest  answered.  "Men  possessing  twenty  or  fifty 
millions  of  dollars  and  using  them  without  regard  for 
the  rights  of  other  people,  were  very  dangerous.  They 
were  in  a  position  to  annihilate  their  competitors,  and 
they  frequently  used  their  power  unmercifully.    Thus 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  109 

by  increasing  their  millions  and  by  killing  competition 
they  were  paving  the  way  for  communism.  And  was 
it  not  unfair  that  a  man  who  had  amassed  by  all  man- 
ner of  means  such  an  enormous  fortune  could  leave  it 
to  a  son  who  would  continue  the  work  of  killing  com- 
petitors with  smaller  means?  What  could  the  most 
able  man  accomplish  in  an  avocation,  if  he  had 
against  him  a  man  who  possessed,  perhaps,  very  little 
ability,  but  who  was  unscrupulously  using  his  millions 
to  attain  his  ends?  Parents  might  leave  their 
children  enough  to  place  their  dear  ones  beyond  the 
reach  of  want  but  they  should  not  enable  them  to  pre- 
vent the  children  of  poorer  parents  having  a  fair  show 
to  get  ahead  in  life". 

"You  would  have  met  with  considerable  resistance 
to  such  a  proposition  in  my  days",  I  remarked. 

"I  fancy  the  millionaires  would  have  objected",  Mr. 
Forest  assented.  "Still,  I  think  that  such  a  law  would 
have  served  the  best  interest  of  both  the  children  of 
rich  parents  and  humanity  in  general.  Nothing  but  a 
law  of  this  kind  could  have  stemmed  the  tide  of  com- 
munism and  anarchy.  A  child  inheriting  $250,000 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with  his  lot  and  ought  to  let  the 
surplus  go  to  the  defraying  of  the  expenses  of  the 
government.  By  sacrificing  a  part  of  their  enormous 
fortunes,  the  heirs  would  have  saved  the  rest,  and 
would  have  weakened  the  communistic  tendency  of 
your  days.  And  it  appears  more  than  doubtful  to 
me  whether  the  possession  of  such  enormous  proper- 


no  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

ties  made  these  wealthy   people   good,  or  even  happy 
and  contented". 

"If  such  a  law  had  been  passed  in  1887  most  of  the 
millionaires  would  have  converted  their  property  into 
cash  and  emigrated  to  Europe",  I  objected. 

"I  suppose  they  would  have  done  so",  Mr.  Forest 
admitted.  "But  I  am,  nevertheless,  convinced  that 
a  law  of  this  kind  would  not  only  have  been  just  but 
that  it  would  have  done  a  great  deal  to  save  humanity 
from  communism.  Civilized  countries  would  have 
been  obliged  to  pass  a  similar  law  at  the  same  time". 

"The  temptation  to  avoid  the  consequences  of  the 
statute  would  have  been  very  great",  I  remarked. 
"Many  people  would  have  tried  to  evade  the  tax  by 
declaring  to  the  authorities  a  smaller  amount  of  prop- 
erty than  they  really  owned,  or  by  presenting  during 
their  life  time,  a  part  of  their  fortune  to  their  chil- 
dren". 

"Any  attempt  at  fraud  should  have  been  punished 
by  a  confiscation  of  all  the  property",  said  Mr.  Forest. 
*'And  as  for  gifts  they  could  have  been  taxed  at  the 
same  rate  as  inheritances  from  one  percent  up  to 
fifty. — But  such  a  law  would  have  been  necessary  only 
during  the  first  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  a  new  order  of 
things.  As  soon  as  mutual  producing  associations 
were  in  general  operation,  selling  their  goods  directly 
from  the  factories  to  the  consumers,  and  buying  all 
the  necessities  of  life  and  commodities,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, at  wholesale,  and  selling  them  a  little  above 
cost  price,  there  would  have  been  little  occasion  for 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  iii 

men  to  amass  millions  of  dollars.  The  numoer  of 
middlemen  and  traders  would  have  largely  decreased^ 
Everybody  would  have  been  compelled  to  do  work  of 
some  kind  and  would  have  received  a  compensation 
according  to  both  the  quantity  and  quality  of  his  per- 
formances". 

"But  would  not  cliques  like  the  one  you  are  charg- 
ing with  having  control  of  your  government  have 
taken  possession  of  a  mutual  producing  association, 
thus  depriving  the  clever  workers  of  a  part  of  their 
earnings  and  paying  the  poorer  men  more  for  their 
work  than  they  deserved?"  I  queried. 

"In  such  a  case  the  good  men  could  have  left  an 
association,  where  they  were  cheated  and  joined  an- 
other partnership.  Good  laborers  are  always  appre- 
ciated wherever  competition  rules.  But  the  associa- 
tion, thus  driving  away  their  ablest  members,  would 
soon  have  been  unable  to  compete  with  others.  Diffi- 
culties, therefore,  could  have  been  regulated  without 
much  trouble". 

•'You  must  advocate,  as  a  matter  of  course 
mutual  insurance  companies  among  the  guilds  for  the 
protection  of  the  members  against  accidents,  sickness, 
infirmity  and  old  age,  and  these  mutual  insurance 
companies  would,  perhaps,  have  also  written  life  and 
fire  policies?"  I  suggested. 

"That  would,  indeed,  have  been  a  consequence  of 
the  whole  system  that  would  unite  the  few  advantages 
of  communism  with  the  benefits  of  competition",  Mr. 
Forest  answered. 


112  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

**Woukl  you  have  encouraged  immigration?^  I 
asked.  "At  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  many 
honest,  liberal  and  fair-minded  people,  whom  nobody 
could  fairly  class  as  know-nothings,  were  of  the  opin- 
ion that  the  United  States  had  all  the  foreign  elements 
the  country  could  assimilate,  and  that  the  rest  of  the 
public  lands  should  be  preserved  for  the  children  of 
the  people  living  in  the  Union,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  1887.  The  objection  against  further  immigra- 
tion was  largely  due  to  the  actions  of  the  German 
and  Irish  dynamiters". 

"I  can  imagine",  Mr.  Forest  answered,  "that  some  of 
the  customs  and  notions  of  the  numerous  immigrants 
of  your  time  were  objectionable  to  the  native  Ameri- 
cans, and  tliat  the  crimes  of  the  anarchists,  their  crazy 
revolt  against  the  laws  of  a  country  that  had  offered 
them  hospitality,  must  naturally  have  created  a  deep 
emotion  among  the  Anglo-Americans.  But  I  think 
they  had,  nevertheless,  many  reasons  for  encouraging 
immigration,  especially  under  your  form  of  produc- 
tion. A  strict  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  country", 
he  continued,  after  a  pause,  "against  all  transgressors, 
native  as  well  as  transplanted,  would  have  done  the 
country  good  and  have  made  all  attempts  to  restrict 
immigration  entirely  unnecessary,  all  the  more  so,  as 
the  really  objectionable  foreigners  could  reach  the 
United  States  via  Canada  or  Mexico  if  they  desired 
strongly  to  become  inhabitants  of  the  United  States.'' 

"These  arguments  were  frequently  used  in  my  time/* 
I  remarked. 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  113 

"The  comparatively  small  harm  done  by  immigrants 
was  largely  over-balanced  by  the  many  advantages  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  obtained  through  the 
large  influx  of  people  from  Europe",  said  Mr.  Forest. 
"The  very  fact  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  able- 
bodied  people,  whose  rearing  and  education  had  cost 
the  European  countries  millions  of  dollars,  landed  on 
American  shores  was  a  grfeat  gain  to  the  United  States. 
The  very  presence  of  these  men  and  women  increased 
the  value  of  the  lands  or  city  lots  where  they  settled, 
thus  enriching  the  property  owners.  Many  of  the 
immigrants  were  well  trained  laborers  and  mechanics, 
others  artists  and  scholars.  All  these  men  and  women 
were  not  familiar  with  the  ways  and  means  of  their 
new  country,  many  of  them  were  unable  to  speak  tke 
English  language,  and  they  all  had,  therefore,  to  start 
in  the  very  lowest  places  of  American  business  life  — 
thus  naturally  elevating  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  in  a  more  or  less  degree,  to  higher 
positions  in  life.  Many  of  these  people,  coming  from 
all  parts  Of  Europe,  were  ably  and  well  trained,  and 
they  became  successfull  competitors  of  those,  who 
were  here  before  their  arrival.  But  the  constant 
stream  of  people  from  Europe  to  the  United  States 
was,  nevertheless,  steadily  enriching  atid  elevating 
the  American  people,  and  all  the  blows  aimed  at  im- 
migration were,  therefore,  unwise,  and  the  legislators 
who  proposed  such  blows  remind  me  of  the  man  who 
intended  to  kill  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  eggs". 


114  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

"It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  advance  social  theo- 
ries to  which  everybody  will  agree",  Mr.  Forest  said 
in  conclusion.  "I  maintain,  however,  that  all  such 
theories  should  be  based  on  two  fundamental  princi- 
ples. They  should  have  as  an  aim  the  establishment 
of  a  state  of  society,  where  everybody  should  be  pro- 
tected against  an  undeserved  poverty,  where  the  brain- 
cancer,  fear  of  an  undeserved  poverty,  should  be 
cured;  and  they  should  preserve  competition,  the 
power  that  is  permanently  spurring  everybody  to  use 
his  best  efforts  to  elevate  himself  and  humanity". 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

When  I  left  Mr.  Forest  after  our  last  conversation 
I  was  convinced,  partly  by  his  arguments,  partly  by 
my  own  observations,  that  communism  had  not  estab- 
lished the  millennium,  as  I  had  first  supposed,  after 
the  lectures  of  Dr.  Leete;  but  that  it  had  degraded  hu- 
manity in  every  respect. 

I  felt  that  I  must  speak  frankly  to  Dr.  Leete  about 
the  change  in  my  convictions,  resign  my  position  as 
professor  of  Shawmut  College,  and  that  this  would 
give  my  Hfe  in  the  society  of  the  twentieth  century  a 
new  and  unpleasant  direction. 

Dr.  Leete  had  treated  me  with  the  utmost  kindness, 
and  if  I,  from   the   commencement  of   our   relations, 
had  refused  to  become  enthusiastic  over  communism, 
my  amiable  host,  I  think,  would  have   not   only  tole- 
rated my  views  but  would  have  continued  his  friend- 
ship for  me,  provided  I  did  not  join  the  active  oppo- 
sition to   the   administration.     He   might  even   have 
consented  to  my  marriage  with   Edith.     But  now  the 
circumstances  were  such,  that  my  change  of  mind  in- 
volved   the    most    unpleasant    consequences    for   Dr. 
Leete.     He  had  recommended  me  as  a  man  especially 
qualified  above  others  to  become  the  successor  of  Mr. 
Forest  as  professor  of  the   history   of  the  nineteenth 
century.     I  owed  my  appointment  solely  to  his  influ- 


ri6  LOOKING   FORWARD. 

ence,  and  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  my  apostacy 
from  communism  would  seriously  injure  the  respect 
in  which  Dr.  Leete's  advice  had  been  held  heretofore 
My  host  would  feel  this  keenly.  The  rather  sudden 
change  in  my  opinions,  the  consequence  of  my  very 
limited  knowledge  of  national  economy,  could  have 
no  other  effect  upon  Dr.  Leete's  family,  than  to  destroy 
their  good  opinion  of  me.  They  would  be  forced  to 
believe  me  a  shallow,  superficial  and  ungrateful  man? 
who  had  changed  from  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of 
communism  to  such  a  decided  opponent  of  this  theory 
that  I  would  resign  a  position  granted  to  me  through 
Dr.  Leete's  efforts,  and  thus  place  my  kind  host  in 
an  embarrassing  position. 

And  how  would  Edith  regard  my  resignation  of  the 
professorship?  She  was  attached  to  her  father  by  a 
well  founded  affection  and  esteem.  Would  her  love 
for  me  prove  strong  enough  to  overcome  the  shock 
my  step  involved?  My  blind  enthusiasm  for  the 
present  order  of  things  had  been  heralded  all  over  the 
country  by  the  administration  organs;  they  had  pointed 
to  the  fact  that  I,  a  living  witness  of  the  civilization  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  had  become  an  almost  fanatic 
advocate  of  communism.  The  fact  that  I  had  changed 
my  mind  after  becoming  familiar  with  the  facts  and 
circumstances,  would  compel  the  administration  to 
treat  me  as  a  deceitful,  unprincipled  demagogue,  if 
not  as  a  scoundrel.  There  was  very  little  doubt  that 
I  would  be  assigned  to  the  most  objectionable  work, 
even  if  I  was  spared  a  term  in  an  insane  asylum.  And 


LOOKING  FORWARD,  117 

how  could  I  ask  Edith  Leete,  blooming  like  a  beauti- 
ful flower  in  a  well  protected  garden,  the  house  of  her 
highly  esteemed  father,  to  join  her  lot  to  a  man  who 
would  be  regarded  by  most  of  the  people  either  as  a 
superficial  babbler  or  as  an  unmasked  hypocrite,  de- 
serving his  fate  to  be  degraded  to  class  B  of  the  third 
grade. 

The  fear  of  losing  the  love  of  Edith  overshadowed 
for  a  while  all  other  considerations,  for  I  loved  in 
Edith  Leete  Edith  Bartlett!  And  the  reflection  that 
my  resignation  would  cause  the  loss  of  Edith  to  me 
weighed  upon  my  mind  like  a  nightmare.  Never  in 
my  life  had  I  felt  so  distressed  and  miserable  as  on 
my  way  to  Dr.  Leete's  hou«se  after  my  last  conversa- 
tion with  Mr.  Forest. 

For  a  moment  I  harbored  the  idea  of  ending  my 
misery  by  my  own  hand,  but  I  resolved  to  be  a  man 
and  face  my  fate.  So  I  walked  to  Dr.  Leete's  house 
determined  not  to  deceive  my  friends  nor  to  shrink 
from  my  duty  as  a  man  of  honor. 

I  found  Dr.  Leete,  who  generally  appeared  so  gentle 
and  composed,  in  a  rather  excited  mood.  He  looked 
both  careworn  and  threatening.  Before  I  could  ad- 
dress him  he  stepped  in  front  of  me  and  said: 

"I  have  positive  information  that  our  mutual  friend 
Mr.  Fest,  is  plotting  to  incite  a  rebellion  of  the  Radi- 
cals. Frequent  secret  meetings  have  taken  place 
during  the  last  few  days,  and  I  learn  that  Fest  intends 
to  start  the  rebellion  here  in  Boston". 


ii8  LOOKING  FORWARD, 

*'What  means  will  you  employ  to  prevent  it?"  I 
asked.  "Will  you  call  out  the  citizens  and  arrest  the 
conspirators?  I  am  at  y(nir  service",  I  added,  very 
glad  to  demonstrate  my  readiness  to  serve  my  host  at 
least  against  the  Radicals  whose  abominable  theories 
I  hated — not  to  mention  my  dislike  for   their   leader. 

''I  doubt  very  much  whether  it  would  be  good  pol- 
icy to  appeal  to  the  people",  replied  the  doctor. 
"Such  a  step  would  attach  too  much  importance  to  the 
conspiracy.  I  wish  I  had  placed  that  man  Fest  under 
medical  care,  when  he  left  our  house.  He  is  the  real 
danger  of  the  hour.  His  followers  do  not  amount  to 
much,  but  under  a  leader  like  Fest,  who  combines  a 
certain  rude  eloquence  with  reckless  audacity  and 
physical  power,  a  rebellion  may  become  a  dangerous 
movement.  To  prevent  this  I  have  given  orders  to 
arrest  the  archconspirator  and  to  put  him  in  a  safe 
place  under  medical  treatment". 

I  could  not  indorse  this  step  although  it  would, 
perhaps,  prove  successful.  I  suppressed  my  objec- 
tions, however,  and  asked  Dr.  Leete  if  he  could  give 
a  few  minutes  attention  to  my  own  affairs,  for  I  con- 
sidered it  my  duty  not  to  keep  secret  my  convictions 
any  longer  from  Edith's  father. 

With  his  usual  kindness  Dr.  Leete  turned  to  me  and 
requested  me  to  defer  the  conversation  until  next 
morning  if  the  delay  would  not  be  very  disagreeable 
to  me. 

I  consented. 

We  took  our  places  at  the  table  in  the  dining  room. 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  119 

Mrs.  Leete  had  sent  for  a  light  supper  to  the  com- 
mon eating  house,  but  none  of  us  did  justice  to  the 
meal.     We  all  felt  apprehensive. 

Dr.  Leete  looked  at  his  watch. 

"By  this  time  Fest  ought  to  be  in  the  care  of  the 
officers  and  physicians",  he  said.  *'I  expect  a  report". 

After  a  few  uneasy  minutes  we  heard  a  noise  in 
the  street,  as  if  a  great  number  of  people  were  coming 
up  to  the  house. 

The  housedoor  was  opened,  and  a  brawling  crowd 
entered  the  hall  and  pressed  forward  into  the  dining 
room.  The  mob  was  led  by  Fest,  who,  evidently,  had 
just  been  through  a  hot  fight.  His  woolen  shirt  was 
torn,  and  he  swung  a  heavy  butcher's  axe  stained  with 
blood, 

"Here  I  am  again.  Dr.  Leete",  he  cried  in  his  sten- 
torian voice.  "I  gave  you  fair  warning  that  I  would 
not  enter  your  house  again  as  a  friend.  And  since, 
you  damned  old  hypocritical  tyrant,  you  have  given 
orders  to  imprison  me  in  a  mad-house,  I  have  resolved 
that  you  shall  die  this  evening.  The  people  of  Boston 
shall  be  relieved  from  your  tyranny". 

I  seized  a  knife  and  stepping  to  the  side  of  Dr. 
Leete,  I  stood  ready  to  cover  his  body  with  my  own. 

But  at  this  moment  the  mob's  attention  was  dis- 
tracted by  the  sudden  appearance  in  the  room  of 
Forest,  who  jumped  on  the  dining  table  and  addressed 
the  crowd  without  losing  a  second. 

"I  suppose  you  know  who  I  am",  he  said.  "I  am 
an  enemy  of  this  man",  and   he  pointed  to  Dr.  Leete. 


I20  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

''Because  I  would  not  defend  this  miserable  admin- 
istration I  was  removed  from  my  place  as  professor 
of  Shawmut  College,  and  it  was  Dr.  Leete  who  as- 
signed' me  to  the  position  of  janitor". 

"That's  just  like  the  miserable  old  tyrant",  shouted 
a  dirty  looking  fellow. 

"Therefore,  I  say:  Down  with  an  administration 
that  strangled  free  speech"  continued  Mr.  Forest. 
"Down  with  tyranny!  But  let  us  not  butcher  this 
miserable  old  fellow.  It  is  not  worthy  of  young  and 
vigorous  men  like  us  to  kill  an  unarmed  old  creature. 
Let  us  place  him  in  an  insane  asylum,  where  he  in- 
tended to  imprison  our  friend  Fest". 

"Yes,  yes,  put  him  in  a  madhouse",  the  mob  yelled. 

It  was  evident  that  Forest  was  trying  to  save  Dr. 
Leete's  life.  My  eye  wandered  to  Edith.  She  was 
very  pale  but  composed.  She  had  put  her  left  arm 
around  her  father  and  she  met  my  look  with  an  ex- 
pression of  sympathy.  Unfortunately,  Fest  noticed 
that  expression  in  Edith's  eyes,  and  his  jealousy  broke 
forth  with  increased  force. 

"You  damned  fools",  he  cried  in  a  hoarse  voice, 
"don't  you  see  that  this  man  Forest  is  trying  to  save 
the  life  of  that  tricky  and  dangerous  old  tyrant?  But 
I  demand  my  share  of  the  booty:  the  life  of  Leete 
and  his  daughter'" 

"Do  as  you  please.  Bob" !  the  mob  yelled. 

"Leave  this  room.  Forest",  commanded  Robert 
Fest.  "I  have  no  grudge  against  you;  but  if  you  stand 
in  my  way  you  will  have  to  suffer   the  consequences". 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  121 

"So  long  as  I  live  you  shall  not  commit  murder  in 
this  house",  Mr.  Forest  replied.  ''You  ought  to  be 
ashamed,  Fest,  of  a  conduct  so  unworthy  of  a  gentle- 
man". 

"Shut  up,  you  fool",  Fest  screamed  with  rage^ 
"That  hypocritical  scoundrel,  Leete,  has  bulldozed 
the  people  long  enough.  He  must  die,  and  if  you 
don't  get  out  of  our  way,  you   will  die  with  him". 

A  rage  I  had  never  felt  before  carried  me  away. 
"What  has  this  old  gentleman  done  to  challenge  your 
thirst  for  his  blood,  you  mean,  cruel  coward?"  I  cried, 
and  jumped  at  Fest,  trying  to  put  my  knife  into  his 
heart.  But  a  dozen  fists  disarmed  me,  while  Fest 
commanded:  "Put  that  old  Bostonian  in  a  bag  and 
dump  him  in  the  harbor.  Although  not  a  gentleman 
in  the  eyes  of  the  professor  I  am  a  m.an  of  my  word, 
and  I  have  promised  that  resurrected  spectre,  I  would 
drown  him  like  a  puppy  when  ever  again  he  crossed 
my  path". 

He  lifted  his  axe  and  advanced  towards  Dr.  Leete 
who  remained  silent,  with  his  gray  eyes  fixed  upon  his 
brutal  enemy. 

Once  more  Forest  tried  to  safe  the  life  of  the 
leader  of  the  administration,  but  in  vain.  A  dirty 
looking  ruffian  buried  a  knife  in  Forest's  true  and 
fearless  breast  and  with  the  words:  "We  are  even, 
Leete",  he  sank  to  the  floor.  Edith  struggled  with 
two  men  who  had  seized  her  arms  and  were  trying  to 
lead  her  away  when  Fest's  axe  descended  on  Dr. 
Leete's  gray  head.     Without  a  murmur  he  fell  to  the 


132  LOOKING  FORWARD. 

ground,  while  Edith   with  a  loud  cry  fainted.     Fast 
seized  her  around  her  waist. 

"She  refused  to  be  my  wife"  he  said  with  a  satanic 
grin,  "now  she  will  be  mine  without  the  ridiculous 
ceremony  of  marriage",  and  while  stepping  to  the  door 
with  Edith's  lifeless  body  clasped  by  his  left  arm  he 
said:  "Kill  every  friend  of  the  administration,  boys 
I  will  meet  you  at  the  city  hall  in  an  hour  or  so". 

I  made  a  tremendous,  desperate  effort  to  shake  off 
the  men  who  kept  me  back;  I  uttered  a  despairing  cry 
and — awoke  in  my  bed,  May  31,  1887.  At  my  bedside 
a  physician,  and  my  servant  Sawyer  had  been  busy 
for  some  time  awakening  me  from  my  deep  mesmeric 
slumber  They  had  labored  very  hard  until  they  suc- 
ceeded, but  more  than  an  hour  passed  before  I  had 
regained  my  ability  of  reasoning,  and  then  I  felt 
greatly  relieved 

With  the  swiftness  of  lightning  all  the  details  of  my 
interesting  but  terrible  dream  passed  through  my  mind. 
I  weighed  all  the  arguments  of  Dr.  Leete  and  Mr. 
Forest  carefully  again,  and  felt  delighted  that  I  was 
living  in  the  nineteenth  century  instead  of  in  the  com- 
munistic state  that  appeared  to  me  now  like  a  large 
penitentiary  on  the  eve  of  a  rebellion  of  the  convicts. 

"I  would  rather  work  harder  at  liberty  than  remain 
idle  for  a  number  of  hours  every  day  in  a  prison-like 
life",  I  said  reflectively,  "for  work  is  not  an  evil.  And 
I  would  rather  work  a  few  years  longer  and  miss  some 
commodities  of  life  than  submit  to  communistic 
slavery.     Most  of  the  luxuries  for  which  we  are  strug- 


LOOKING  FORWARD.  123 

gling  appear  most  desirable  so  long  as  we  do  not  pos- 
sess them,  and  we  do  not  care  much  for  them  when 
they  are  ours". 

I  resolved  to  use  hereafter  my  best  ability  for  the 
advancement  of  all  desirable  reforms  for  the  benefit 
of  mankind,  and  to  preach  contentment,  the  only  solid 
basis  of  happiness.  Felicity  is  so  independent  of 
wealth,  in  fact  glory  and  opulence  are  almost  stum- 
bling blocks  in  the  way  of  happiness.  Happiness  de- 
pends largely  on  our  acceptance  of  our  lot.  In 
Victor  Von  Scheffel's  famous  poem  "The  Trumpeter 
of  Siickingen"  young  Werner  when  he  parts  from  his 
beloved  Margaret,  as  he  supposes  forever,  sings: 

To  life  belongs  this  most  unpleasant  feature: 
That  not  a  rose  without  sharp  thorns  does  grow. 

Though  love  eternal  stirs  our  human  nature 
Through  pangs  of  parting  we  at  last  must  go. 

But  Margaret  is  at  last  reunited  to  young  Werner, 
she  becomes  his  wife,  and  it  would  have  been  much 
more  in  consonance  with  the  final  result,  if  young 
Werner,  when  departing  from  Margaret,  had  sung  thus: 

To  life  belongs  this  very  pleasant  feature 

That  next  to  thorns  the  blooming  roses  bend, 

And  love  eternal  conquers  human  nature 
In  joy  uniting  lovers  in  the  end. 


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